A Loganair boss switched planes to avoid a two-hour delay after a meeting to discuss the punctuality of his airline's flights.

Operations director Maurice Boyle boarded an earlier aircraft to Glasgow after his flight from Stornoway to Edinburgh was held up on Monday.

Loganair has faced criticism in recent months over the punctuality and safety of its flights and has pledged to improve the situation.

The airline launched a scheme called Project Optima in summer 2015, which it said would be a "complete review of the company’s operations".

Mr Boyle had been in the islands meeting the heads of Western Isles Council to update them on the airline's progress.

Following the talks, a spokesman for the local authority said: "We very much welcomed the opportunity to meet with senior representatives from the airline in what was an open and frank discussion of the challenges facing them.

"We were given a very clear and honest explanation as to why they think their performance in terms of reliability and punctuality has dropped in the last several months and, perhaps more importantly, what the airline is doing as part of a structured programme of improvements to recover from this”.

The British Airline Pilots Association made a series of claims relating to the safety of Loganair's aircraft last year, including allegations some were "unserviceable" and planes had "defects that clearly affect flight safety".

Within days, two Loganair aircraft bound for Scottish airports were forced to make emergency landings and a third was found to have a cracked propeller moments before take-off.

The company recently announced a £15m investment programme, which includes £4m for the purchase of two new planes and a £6m investment in a new facility in Glasgow to improve the speed repairs can be made to its fleet.

Loganair operates on 31 routes across the UK, including lifeline routes to the Highlands and Islands.

Aviation website Flightontime.info, which monitors airline punctuality, reported that in the year to September last year Loganair was 11th out of 13 major airlines flying to UK airports, with 75.9% of flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule, just below the industry average of 76.5%.