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Loganair defends plane service      4/2/13

Loganair boss Phil Preston is to be quizzed about concerns over frequently disrupted air services to the Western Isles.

Mr Preston, former chief at ferry company Cal Mac, will meet councillors face-to-face at the Comhairle’s transport meeting on Tuesday.

He has been invited to answer concerns over the increase of cancelled flights and other issues relating to Loganair air services.

Mr Preston will highlight that the airline was a plane short for much of a last summer after it was seriously damaged in the firm’s Glasgow hanger last May. It meant there was no spare aircraft to cover for breakdowns.  Loganair has now charted in a plane until its own is fixed.

Mr Preston stressed that some 300 cancelled flights and 1,000 delays in 2012 at Western Isles airports are not exclusively down to Loganair.

The airline highlighted that the figures are of freight services and also include Eastern Airways’s service to Aberdeen. Eastern Airways

The figures were released by airport operator Hial and include all scheduled flights to the three Western Isles airports.

Phil Preston said: “We haven’t had the chance to properly digest the raw statistics provided by HIAL under the Freedom of Information request, which include aircraft movements of all passenger and freight airlines using the airport operator’s airfields.”

He pointed out: “The numbers are not shown in any context against total flights scheduled and do not separate out disruptions caused by weather conditions.

“As with many of Loganair’s routes throughout the Highlands and Islands, adverse weather is a key factor which can affect our services.

“This has been the case during Loganair’s 50 years of service – the longest of any Scottish airline - to some of the country’s most remote areas, where challenging weather conditions are frequent.

“The safety of our passengers always comes first and is of the upmost importance to this airline.”

John Mackay, the Comhairle’s transport chairman said: “The issue of disruptions to air services has been raised with me many times and it is a matter of concern to many people. We will make that clear to the Loganair representatives and listen carefully to what they have to say.”