Loganair pilots have slammed the lack of engineering cover for the planes which serve the Western Isles and other Scottish islands.
Pilots criticise Loganair's "appalling" service for passengers
28 October 2015
The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) has written to the airline expressing concerns over issues in its engineering department.
Insufficient personnel means the remaining engineers struggling to cope with the workload, says the union.
The letter claimed planes suffered recurring faults or were returned from the hanger "unserviceable."
This included some aircraft retaining defects which could affect flight safety, it is claimed.
Passengers are getting an "appalling service" with missed connections and holiday delays as a result, said the pilots union.
Check-
Morale is said to be low amongst plane crews with the situation claimed to be getting worse.
Loganair chief executive, Stewart Adams, insisted "safety of our crews and passengers is and always will be our number one priority."
Mr Adams stressed: "The final decision on whether or not a flight departs is always in the hands of the pilot, and we know that none of our pilots would ever leave the ground if he or she had any safety concerns."
He added: "We are always open to discussing matters of concern with our flight crews, and have responded quickly to both BALPA and the pilot representatives with an offer to meet with them at the earliest opportunity to address their issues in detail.
“Moving on to engineering, there have been issues, with a number of experienced employees leaving or retiring and having to be replaced.
“The process of training their replacements to work with the very specialised aircraft that fly on Loganair routes takes time, but we are now well into this process."
The Loganair boss continued: “On reliability, as we have said previously, we are currently undertaking a complete review of our operation to improve both punctuality and reliability on our services."
He said the changes will not happen overnight, but he promised the airline is "working hard to improve performance."
