A SCOTTISH airline is set to launch a new airport base, create new routes and hire new airline staff.
Loganair is set to construct its tenth base and provide new routes between Scotland and England.
The Glasgow-based airline will be opening a base at Southampton Airport, as well as expanding routes from Scottish airports.
The Southampton base will allow the airline to “efficiently serve” southern mainland and island communities and will increase the number of seats available through the airline by over 140,000 per year.
The move will generate new jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers, amid a recent pay rise for staff.
It is planned that the base will be operated by two ATR-72 600 aircraft, with the first aircraft arriving in October.
From October, new routes from Southampton to Manchester and Manchester to Exeter will be added to the airline’s timetable, while the capacity of aircraft serving the popular Southampton to Edinburgh route has been increased from 49 to 72 passengers.
New routes via Manchester to Inverness and Aberdeen will also become available.
The new Southampton to Manchester route is timed to meet key connections to Inverness, Aberdeen and Isle of Man. This new route enhances onward connectivity at Manchester, via existing partnerships with Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Aer Lingus.
Luke Farajallah, chief executive at Loganair, said: “We are delighted to be announcing a new base in Southampton, which is a logical and important strategic step for the UK’s largest regional airline. Loganair is very familiar with operations to and from the south coast, and we feel confident the local market will respond well to our more permanent presence and new routes through the basing of two aircraft later this year.”
He continued: “The DNA of our business for over six decades has been to connect regions and cities and to connect island communities to the mainland. Southampton offers a unique location and we believe the markets, local people and businesses will respond well to our presence in this thriving part of the UK. We are also looking forward to welcoming our new team members who will be recruited from the local areas.
“We would like to thank our partners at AGS (Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton Airport Group) for working with our teams to deliver a new dimension to our existing partnership, and we look forward to enabling growth as we develop this new base.”
Loganair has bases in Kirkwall, Inverness, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Derry, Newcastle and the Isle of Man.
