ROUTES EUROPE: Aircraft Buy Will Safeguard Regional Links in Scotland

Posted 07/05/2011

The Scottish Government is understood to have approved funding for the acquisition of two Viking Air DHC-6 Twin Otter 400s for use on flights linking the remote communities on its many islands with the mainland.  A tentative deal has already been signed with Viking Air and the two aircraft are planned for delivery in 2013 when existing contracts to operate these routes will be renewed.

Under the terms of any deal, the Scottish Government will retain ownership of the two turboprops and these will be chartered to operators to serve remote markets, including the beach runway of Barra, which provides an essential lifeline to the 1,200 residents of the small Hebridean Island.  This market is currently served by Loganair under a franchise partnership with low-fare carrier Flybe.  It currently uses a DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 on the route but will retire its aircraft from service, a move that could have resulted in the closure of the link to Barra from Glasgow as the turboprop is the only type permitted to land on the daily tide-washed cockleshell strand at Traigh Mhor.

---

With effect from March 19, 2012 the Breaking News coverage on Routesonline is powered by Airline Route.  For more analysis on these stories please read our expanded coverage of the key stories of the day in The HUB. 

You can also keep up to date with the latest network development news by following the live updates from @Routesonline, @TheHUBRoutes, @RouteExchange and @airlineroute on Twitter.  While all the latest news from our events can be seen by searching the #RoutesAfrica, #RoutesAmericas, #RoutesAsia, #RoutesCIS, #RoutesEurope and #WorldRoutes hashtags.

All material is copyright of UBM Aviation Routes but the views expressed are not necessarily the views of UBM Aviation Routes and the company shall therefore not be liable for the contents of any article that appears on the site.  Although the best efforts have been taken in collecting and checking the material we can not and do not warrant that the information contained in this product is complete or accurate and does not assume and hereby disclaims liability to any person for any loss of damage caused by errors or omissions.

PLEASE NOTE: From March 7, 2012 schedule data for all news stories has been extracted from OAG Schedules iNET; All GDS data is based on a live GDS update on the day of publication; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending December 2011.  All information is subject to change.