The Scottish airline that has become number 1 for punctuality in 'hard won' accolade
Carrier takes title for first time after admitting “inconsistent” past performance
Scottish airline Loganair has become the most punctual in the UK for the first time after turning the corner on its previously “inconsistent" performance.
A total of 86 per cent of its flights departed or arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, the industry standard, between April and June. The Civil Aviation Authority figure cover the UK’s 25 main airports, including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
The Glasgow-based airline took the top spot ahead of Virgin Atlantic at 84 per cent after previously being second best. British Airways was third equal with Eurowings at 80 per cent, with Easyjet - Scotland’s biggest airline - scoring 75 per cent, Ryanair 71 per cent and Jet2 69 per cent.
Loganair chief executive Luke Farajallah told The Scotsman: “It’s been hard won accolade. We set that as an objective a year ago as there was a lot of noise about punctuality.
“Loganair’s relationship with on-time performance has been inconsistent.
“I took a very strong view that if you want to be known as being a really good airline, you’ve got to have a long-standing relationship with being on time, season in, season out.”
Mr Farajallah that the airline’s past performance had been hampered by the Covid pandemic, changes to its aircraft fleet and taking over routes from failed competitor Flybe.
He said: “The business is much stronger operationally than it has been. We’re dealing with a relatively stable fleet and no pandemic, and that makes a big difference.
“We’ve also built in the right amount of resilience. Pilot turnover was quite high but it’s much lower now.
“We have got the right number of pilots for the first time in a very long time, and a small holding pool of pilots, which is a very nice place to be.”
Mr Farajallah said the improved performance would be reflected in an increase in pre-tax profits in its 2024-25 results, due to be published by December, from £6.9 million the previous year.
Loganair has also finally agreed a pay deal with pilots union Balpa following protracted negotiations which included an offer termed by the company as “final” being rejected in a ballot.
A further offer was later agreed by 94 per cent of union members, which Mr Farajallah described as “a resounding win for everybody, which is great news”.
He said: “It was frustrating it took six months but we never got close to industrial action or any major fallout - everybody was talking to each other all along.
“But we can now reflect on where we can do things differently next year, and we are going to start talking much earlier than we did this year, probably in January, and hopefully that means we’ll conclude it much sooner.”
Balpa director for industrial relations and employment policy Chris Jones said: “We are delighted to have negotiated a deal that works both for our members, as demonstrated by the 94 per cent acceptance vote, and for Loganair.
“We welcome Mr Farajallah’s commitment to starting pay talks earlier next year and look forward to working positively with him on industrial issues.”
Mr Jones added: “Congratulations to Loganair on achieving the distinction of being Britain’s most punctual airline, and especially to our hard-working and professional members who are part of the team that made that happen.”
Meantime, Mr Farajallah said there was no sign of another move to sell the airline. It was put on the market by owners Stephen and Peter Bond in 2023 then taken off again a year later.
He said: “I have not been given any mandate to move that process forwards. It is not for sale at this moment, and that’s great because it means I can focus entirely on making the business as good as it can be.”
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