Eastern Airways - Suspension of operations

[AlastairFraser]

One place where Flybe didnt help themselves is having a route that uses Heathrow. Also Loganair does a Heathrow service to and from Dundee.

Because of the landing fees + other fees, this airport is a peculiar choice for a regional carrier that mostly serves UK domestic market.

Its something that works for national flag carriers. I fail to see how Heathrow could work for a small regional carrier.

Good luck to Loganair if they can pull a profit from that route, but just cannot envision how this airport fits into to the profit strategy of these regional carriers.

It's about connections really, like a lot of regional airport to London domestic routes.
There's not a huge market for people from a regional city or town just going to London, a lot of passengers are heading to Heathrow for a flight to the Americas or Asia.
Some regional airports like Humberside or Isle of Man may have routes to other European hubs like Amsterdam or Dublin, but e.g. Newquay or Dundee only have Heathrow as their hub connection.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The only possible saver would be if we had an essential air service regulation like in the USA where government financially props it up.

Leaving it to for profit companies to do leaves it open to airlines going under.

I wonder how Aurigny Air Service is performing finacially as this is one of the last players in this game, the others are Isles of Scilly Skybus and Loganair.

Aurigny is 100% owned by the States of Guernsey government and has been loss making since forever.

There are plenty of PSOs and similar agreements across the country. The Isle of Man government underwrites Loganair’s flights to London Heathrow and London City. Loganair also have the patient transfer contract for IOM residents requiring medical treatment in the UK.

Loganair’s other Heathrow flights, from Derry and Dundee, are also PSOs.

 

[ainsworth74]

It's about connections really, like a lot of regional airport to London domestic routes.
There's not a huge market for people from a regional city or town just going to London, a lot of passengers are heading to Heathrow for a flight to the Americas or Asia.
Some regional airports like Humberside or Isle of Man may have routes to other European hubs like Amsterdam or Dublin, but e.g. Newquay or Dundee only have Heathrow as their hub connection.

Though I think that only really works well when you've got interline or codeshare agreements with other airlines. Otherwise the lack of protection for delays (especially going from Heathrow to the regional destination where there may only be one flight per day!) necessitated by having to buy two separate tickets would surely put a lot of passengers off. I'd always be very wary of booking a split ticket for airline travel unless allowing a huge amount of contingency time. It works well for someone like BA or KLM who are connecting into their massive hubs at Heathrow/Amsterdam but for someone like Eastern or Loganair?

 

[takno]

Though I think that only really works well when you've got interline or codeshare agreements with other airlines. Otherwise the lack of protection for delays (especially going from Heathrow to the regional destination where there may only be one flight per day!) necessitated by having to buy two separate tickets would surely put a lot of passengers off. I'd always be very wary of booking a split ticket for airline travel unless allowing a huge amount of contingency time. It works well for someone like BA or KLM who are connecting into their massive hubs at Heathrow/Amsterdam but for someone like Eastern or Loganair?

Is the Loganair thing a hangover from when they used to do a lot of BA branded flights? If they don't have codeshare then it seems like an incredibly strange plan. Dundee is only about an hour by car, bus or hourly train from Edinburgh airport, which has much better connections to the world.

Still, this is a corner of the industry that does strange things like committing to Teeside airport. They're running very small planes at pretty high cost, depending on a small number of people having a need which happens to match the flight and no inclination to shop around. If they started flying to City or Gatwick/Luton instead and it was even slightly successful the easyJet would be along to steal the market.

 

[Terry Tibbs]

Flying between UK regional airports has become almost impossible to make money doing. UK air taxes are very high (Scotland’s are even higher). They are simply not appropriate for point to point flying. Large airlines with hubs and connecting flights can absorb these costs however independent regional airlines simply cannot. Either by design or bad luck there is not going to be a regional UK air market.

 

[Butts]

Flying between UK regional airports has become almost impossible to make money doing. UK air taxes are very high (Scotland’s are even higher). They are simply not appropriate for point to point flying. Large airlines with hubs and connecting flights can absorb these costs however independent regional airlines simply cannot. Either by design or bad luck there is not going to be a regional UK air market.

Not everywhere - check out Inverness.

 

[AlterEgo]

Worth mentioning Scotland does not yet have its own aviation taxes, although it has the right to levy one in lieu of Air Passenger Duty. The reason it hasn't come into being yet is because the Scottish government is vacillating over the Highlands and Islands exemptions to APD and the environment and economic impact of potentially removing that exemption.

 

[pug1]

The Heathrow to Dundee air service is a PSO (Public Service Obligation) route, and is extended to Kirkwall and Sumburgh twice weekly for each of these 2 airports.

The Gatwick-Newquay air service is being reinstated as a PSO route to maintain a scheduled air service from Cornwall to London every weekday, which is not commercially viable and which Ryanair does not provide daily.

Aurigny no longer serves Jersey, so its routes aren't vulnerable to predation by low cost carriers, whose jets are too big to serve Alderney and Guernsey airports. The same is not true of Blue Islands, which primarily serves Jersey, where Easyjet has a major presence.

As for Eastern's other former routes from Aberdeen, there are already discussions about reviving the PSO service to Wick, but the other 2 routes, that primarily served the declining oil industry, are less likely to reappear, particularly that to Teesside.

The LGW-NQY is not commercially viable as you say, so I wonder how much the contract is worth for Skybus to take on considering Eastern put a low ball bid of £1.4million in to win it. My concern would be how many people will use it even if it is more reliable than when it was ran by Eastern?

Not sure on the oil industry comment. It’s certainly on the slow down as decommissioning is taking place, however offshore renewables are starting to take its place, certainly off the Humber creating sybergies with the northern Netherlands and coast of Denmark. NWI still manages to support a 2 x daily to ABZ, I would think HUY may have a chance of replacement, though as every day passes where it’s unserved it does become less and less likely. The HUY-ABZ was 4 x daily pre-Covid, reduced to 1 x daily afterwards. Whether it is picked up will depend on industry demand and capacity. I recall when Air UK became incorporated into KLM, the route was bridged by non-scheduled operators like GAMA until Eastern weren’t formed. Not seeing that at the moment sadly.

The U.K. does not lend itself to widespread regional air connectivity. The one airport that could be linked up viably is LHR but when slots are at a premium it’s simply uneconomical to run smaller aircraft through there regularly. So with a reduction in demand owing to the remote working culture (long may that last BTW!) and increased tax making the services uneconomical, we’ll be left with a few niche operators and some of the legacy shuttles (MAN-LHR) with the rest of the volume stuff taken up by the easyJet’s and Ryanair’s.

Shame for people wanting to enter the industry as the operators like Eastern, whilst poorly managed and a nightmare at times, they did nontheless provide an access route to experience before moving on to bigger and better things. Alas no more.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Is the Loganair thing a hangover from when they used to do a lot of BA branded flights? If they don't have codeshare then it seems like an incredibly strange plan.

Though I think that only really works well when you've got interline or codeshare agreements with other airlines. Otherwise the lack of protection for delays (especially going from Heathrow to the regional destination where there may only be one flight per day!) necessitated by having to buy two separate tickets would surely put a lot of passengers off.

All the Loganair flights to Heathrow (Dundee, Derry, and IOM) are codeshared with BA.

It's also worth noting that Loganair has a significant number of interline agreements too, including with Emirates, Qatar, Singapore Airlines, and KLM/Air France.

As for the protection aspect, it comes down to just how much more expensive the through ticket is compared to buying split tickets. It's worth a bit of a premium but travel insurance exists for a reason. I do like booking through on BA; when it went wrong for me (Loganair delay due to tech) they met us at the aircraft steps at Heathrow with the details of our new flight. Sadly the delay meant we then had to spend five hours in Galleries South drinking wine. The horror.

 

[Butts]

All the Loganair flights to Heathrow (Dundee, Derry, and IOM) are codeshared with BA.

It's also worth noting that Loganair has a significant number of interline agreements too, including with Emirates, Qatar, Singapore Airlines, and KLM/Air France.

As for the protection aspect, it comes down to just how much more expensive the through ticket is compared to buying split tickets. It's worth a bit of a premium but travel insurance exists for a reason. I do like booking through on BA; when it went wrong for me (Loganair delay due to tech) they met us at the aircraft steps at Heathrow with the details of our new flight. Sadly the delay meant we then had to spend five hours in Galleries South drinking wine. The horror.

Should have toddled over to the B gates Lounge with that much time to kill - often quieter as well.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Though I think that only really works well when you've got interline or codeshare agreements with other airlines. Otherwise the lack of protection for delays (especially going from Heathrow to the regional destination where there may only be one flight per day!) necessitated by having to buy two separate tickets would surely put a lot of passengers off. I'd always be very wary of booking a split ticket for airline travel unless allowing a huge amount of contingency time. It works well for someone like BA or KLM who are connecting into their massive hubs at Heathrow/Amsterdam but for someone like Eastern or Loganair?

As someone else has highlighted, I believe Loganair have a wide range of code share and interline agreements that make connections much less stressful and practical. So it's not really an issue for Loganair, although it may have been for Eastern!

 

[daodao]

As for Eastern's other former routes from Aberdeen, there are already discussions about reviving the PSO service to Wick.

The PSO route from Aberdeen to Wick is now scheduled to restart from 14th January 2026, with 1 return flight daily except Saturday, operated by Air Charter Scotland using a leased Jetstream 32 airliner with 18 seats.

 

[sh24]

The PSO route from Aberdeen to Wick is now scheduled to restart from 14th January 2026, with 1 return flight daily except Saturday, operated by Air Charter Scotland using a leased Jetstream 32 airliner with 18 seats.

Fares starting £89.99 one way.

 

[AlterEgo]

The PSO route from Aberdeen to Wick is now scheduled to restart from 14th January 2026, with 1 return flight daily except Saturday, operated by Air Charter Scotland using a leased Jetstream 32 airliner with 18 seats.

Rare aircraft these days, well worth a bash.

 

[pug1]

Rare aircraft these days, well worth a bash.

Just so long as you have some noise cancelling headphones!

 

[Sealink]

Just so long as you have some noise cancelling headphones!

Well, until the end of February it is going to be operated by a 7 seater Beech King Air 200.
The pictures I have seen online make it look like a private jet!

Spittal to Beauly Overhead Electricity Line Application – Highland Council

Confirmation that the application has been submitted

www.highland.gov.uk

Effective today, from 14 January 2026, Air Charter Scotland has contracted Dragonfly Aviation Services, a UK-based operator to operate Wick–Aberdeen-Wick, flying a G-registered Beech King Air 200 aircraft seating 7 passengers, operating six days per week.

 

[gabrielhj07]

G-MEGN I understand

 

[pug1]

Well, until the end of February it is going to be operated by a 7 seater Beech King Air 200.
The pictures I have seen online make it look like a private jet!

A much nicer experience if you value your hearing.

 

[Sealink]

A much nicer experience if you value your hearing.

The aircraft looks like a private jet. And with 7 passengers probably is!

 

[Chiltern006]

Air Charter Scotland is a private operator so I can’t say I’m surprised (what I am surprised about is that the route went to them and not Loganair given ACS run no fare-paying services)

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The aircraft looks like a private jet. And with 7 passengers probably is!

I've been in one of those ( not the same one... in my case it was G-REBK which is these days on the American register as N85XP ) and yes, they're aimed at the executive market and are extremely good aircraft, very comfortable and very smooth. They also have much larger windows than most, and are fully pressurised to cruise at 30,000 ft although they're unlikely to reach that height on the short Scottish sectors.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Air Charter Scotland is a private operator so I can’t say I’m surprised

They were going to wet lease the aircraft from the Netherlands but, apparently, there are issues with Border Force. I can only presume these issues will be visa-related, i.e. the Dutch crew will need a visa to work the route and nobody thought to apply for one before now.