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Air Routes - Now IOM loses Scottish links

Fri, 24 May 2013

Scottish airline, Loganair have confirmed they will not be continuing with either the Isle of Man to Edinburgh or Glasgow routes after June this year..  

Loganair currently operate a single daily service six days a week, to both destinations under a franchise agreement with Flybe.

This news comes less than 24 hours after it was confirmed that Flybe were axing service to Gatwick next year, having sold off the landing slots to Easyjet.

David Cretney, the Minister incharge of the Isle of Man Airport told Energy FM News:

"The timing of the Loganair decision to cease both Scottish services to the Island, is entirely coincidental with the news received earlier this week that Flybe have sold off their arrival and departure slots at Gatwick to EasyJet.

The Department has been in discussion with Loganair over recent weeks, regarding the economies of the route and the declining passenger figures.

It will be a great shame to see Loganair pull off our Scottish routes, however, they cite a culmination of the route costs, the UK economy and the downturn in higher yielding traffic, as the main factors in coming to this decision. Even if the Department were to offer no airport charges at Ronaldsway for the summer, which is something we could not do without offering the same to all of our airline customers, both the routes would still lose money. If the Department can attract a new operator on the route, which we hope to do, then we need to attract passengers to use the flights, or else we will lose the routes permanently."

Loganair have been operating services from Edinburgh and Glasgow since 2004, however, over the last 3-4 years whilst their revenue has remained static, their operating costs have increased by around 20%.

The weekly Norwich to IOM summer service will continue to be operated by Loganair for Summer 2013.

The Department is in discussion with a number of other airlines to see if either or both the Scottish routes can be picked up by another operator, although it is not likely that another operator will have any aircraft availability this summer from July when Loganair ceases services.

Loganair passengers will be offered a full refund or the option of routing via Manchester with Flybe.

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