News / Hinkles upbeat about Loganair changes
LOGANAIR chief Jonathan Hinkles has outlined the changes Shetlanders should expect when the company exits its franchise agreement with Flybe later this year.
The managing director told Shetland News that while there will not be any reduction in fares, the airline will continue to offer a higher proportion of cheaper seats.
A new online booking system will be in place on Loganair’s website from 22 March and Flybe’s credit card surcharge will be removed.
Speaking at Thursday’s external transportation forum at the Islesburgh Community Centre in Lerwick, Hinkles said Loganair would follow other airlines and stop the unaccompanied minors scheme for children aged between five and 11.
He said from the end of March the Sumburgh to Aberdeen route would be operated five times a day, but with the smaller Saab 340 because operating the larger Saab 2000 had not resulted in an increase in passenger numbers.
Hinkles also confirmed that from 27 March onwards all flights to Inverness would stop off in Kirkwall.
The managing director jokingly called the end of the franchise agreement “frexit” as he updated stakeholders, councillors and the public about Loganair’s plans come 1 September.
While its unaccompanied minors scheme will largely end, a new fare will be introduced for parents who wish to fly to an airport to drop off their child and get the next flight back home.
Through a new Videcom booking system, passengers will be able to buy tickets up to ten months in advance, while online check-in will be extended to four or five days before the day of travel.
A “get me home” option will be available on the mid-tier Plus ticket which will allow passengers who are in an airport ahead of time to get an earlier flight at no extra cost.
Hinkles said more codeshare agreements, which allow passengers to book connecting flights with other airlines, should expand to add BMI Regional and other routes.
He said “constructive dialogue” was ongoing with Flybe to enter a codeshare agreement with the former partners. Hinkles said he was confident a deal would be struck.
Responding to a question from councillor Theo Smith, who said he had to pay £90 to change a ticket, Hinkles said the cost of altering a booking would remain the same.
He also confirmed that the Flybe loyalty credit card will not be replicated after the handover, while he was pessimistic about the AVIOS scheme being continued on the Northern Isles route.
Punctuality and reliability meanwhile has remained high following a turbulent number of months in 2015.
In the last quarter of 2016 just 61 flights were cancelled or delayed for more than three hours, which was a decrease of around 150 compared to the year before.
He added that Loganair would push for the Scottish Government to remove air passenger duty on flights to the Highlands and Islands in light of the scheme already being exempt from journeys from the region, which could save £13 a ticket.
Speaking after the meeting, Hinkles said removing Flybe from the franchise equation will give Loganair more flexibility to make changes to its service.
“There’s the taking out of credit card charges for example – those are decisions that Loganair can make in its own right that it couldn’t make before,” he said.
“As part of the franchise, it was very defined as to how the systems worked and what we could and couldn’t do.
“I think another thing is it will enable us to, over time, expand the range of airline partnerships that we have. The wider connectivity to Shetland will be something that we will work on, and I’m very, very confident it will give us much wider scope to develop.”
Hinkles dashed any optimistic hopes for fare cuts, but he did confirm that the airline would continue to offer more seats at initially cheaper prices – something Loganair has been doing for the last “six to nine months”.
“Will it bring down our very cheapest headline fare? No, because the vast majority of that is already taxes, fees and charges that we pay to airports and the air passenger duty,” he said.
The managing director also admitted that integrating the new Loganair system into the points-based Avios rewards scheme may prove too difficult come September.
However, he said Loganair would make extra seats available for Avios redemptions between now and the handover to allow people to use up their points.
“All I can do at this point is say that we would have liked to have keep that in place, but if the systems can’t talk to each other, then effectively we can’t.”
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