‘Shocks in the system’ led to Heathrow route being scrapped

RISING maintenance costs and a lack of available aircraft parts have been partly blamed for the Sumburgh-Dundee-Heathrow air service being scrapped.

The route from Sumburgh to London Heathrow, via Dundee, has been withdrawn by Loganair from September onwards, with an announcement made earlier this month.

Loganair delivered the service as a public service obligation (PSO), but said it had decided to pull out after a review of its air network.

Ronnie Matheson, Loganair’s chief commercial officer, told Tuesday’s Shetland external transport forum that the route simply had not been viable from a cost perspective.

He said they were “locked in” to a contract with the PSO.

“What we can’t do is account for any shocks in the system,” he said.

Matheson said the lack of available aircraft parts globally and the “increased cost of maintenance” had seriously affected Loganair’s ability to fly to Heathrow.

“Quite simply that was the reason why we could no longer make the Dundee-Heathrow service work,” he added.

He repeated that Loganair is exploring alternative London airports to fly into from Dundee later this year.

Loganair said in early May that it remained committed to the Dundee airport, and was reviewing alternate options to fly into London.

Matheson said they had been slightly frustrated that the news of Loganair pulling out of Heathrow had been announced before they had been able to line up a replacement airport.

He added they would hopefully announce their new London stop “in the coming weeks”.