Loganair apologise over recent flight disruption

April 13, 2022 at 11:57 am

Aircraft services linking Orkney with the Scottish mainland have been beset by disruption over the last week.

Loganair has apologised to passengers following recent disruption on flights to and from Orkney.

In a statement released this morning, the airline explained that it has been impacted by staff sickness and said that it is doing its “very best to operate all services as scheduled under highly unusual circumstance.”

Passengers onboard a flight from Aberdeen to Orkney on Friday evening experienced severe disruption following the cancellation of that flight and then their plane from Sumburgh being beset by technical issues.

Complaints from passengers also flooded into a now-deleted Facebook post from Kirkwall Airport announcing that the Wednesday morning flight from Kirkwall to Aberdeen had also been cancelled.

Orkney MSP Liam McArthur is also set to discuss the recent disruption with Loganair management this afternoon.

Commenting on the situation last Friday evening, a spokeswoman for Loganair said: “Unfortunately, like many other airlines, we have recently experienced cases of staff sickness which has impacted our ability to operate as scheduled on a handful of our services. While the impact of such has been lesser for Loganair, our service between Aberdeen and Kirkwall on Friday evening was regrettably cancelled due to such circumstances.

“To best manage the situation and ensure the best care for our customers, we split the passengers into two groups and the more vulnerable were accommodated nearby in Aberdeen, with a flight arranged early Saturday morning to transport them to Kirkwall via Sumburgh.

“Unfortunately, the flight from Sumburgh to Kirkwall experienced a technical issue which meant that the passengers were accommodated in Sumburgh overnight before being flown to Kirkwall the following morning. The situation was handled with the best intentions to get our most vulnerable passengers to Kirkwall as early as we possibly could however technical issues meant that was not possible.

“We are doing are very best to operate all services as scheduled under highly unusual circumstances at the moment but do offer our sincere apologies to all affected customers.”