Transport / Loganair’s performance praised but concern about ticket prices
LOGANAIR has been praised for its on-time performance – but was also told its prices seem to be “creeping up”.
Councillor Moraig Lyall – who is chairwoman of both the external transport forum and the council’s environment and transport committee – said the airline’s fares appeared to be on the rise.
Loganair officials were at Tuesday’s external transport meeting to give a short presentation about the airline’s latest performance.
Chief operating officer Natalie Bush said the airline’s punctuality for January to August this year was up 12 per cent on the same period in 2024.
That meant Loganair was the best performing airline from April to June 2025 for flights on time, according to the Civil Aviation Authority, with 86 per cent of its flights arriving on time.
Bush said it was the first time that Loganair had topped the chart.
She said the airline’s popular twice-weekly route to Bergen would return in summer 2026, and that the Edinburgh-Sumburgh service had seen “significant growth” this year.
The chief operating officer put that down to bigger aircrafts being used on the route, which had in turn resulted in lower fares.
Bush said, however, that the service to Inverness had seen a downturn due to less construction traffic.
She told the forum that Loganair was hoping to replace that reduction with an emphasis on more leisure travel to and from Inverness, which was “showing positive signs”.
A scheme that offered free flights to children 11 and under earlier this year is also set to return.
Bush said that the Kids Fly Fare-Free campaign had proved popular, and that Loganair is looking to bring it back again in the near future.
Forum chairwoman Lyall praised Loganair for its on-time performance, saying that was “fundamentally the most important thing” about the service.
However she was critical of the fares being charged by the airline.
“The prices of the flights do seem to be creeping up,” she said.
“There seems to have been a considerable increase in costs.”
She added she would like “to see that coming down again”.
Loganair’s officials were also quizzed on when the fuel surcharge – charged to passengers on each leg of their journey – will be removed.
The £3.95 surcharge per one-way trip was introduced in March 2022 by Loganair as a response to rising global oil prices.
It said then that if the price of Brent crude oil fell below $110 per barrel for six consecutive weeks, the surcharge would be halved.
And it said if it fell below $85 per barrel for six consecutive weeks then the fuel surcharge would be removed completely.
NHS Shetland’s finance chief Colin Marsland pointed out that the price of a barrel was sitting at $66 as of Tuesday afternoon and asked when Loganair would remove the charge.
Bush said it was not something that she was aware of personally, but pledged to find out from colleagues and report back to the forum.
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