'For sale' Scottish airline Loganair returns to profitability after pandemic

Scottish airline Loganair has announced it has returned to profitability following the pandemic.

On Wednesday, the Glasgow-based company released its audited accounts for the financial year to March 31, 2022, setting out a profit before tax of £4.98m on a turnover of £161m.

It is the first year since before the Covid-19 pandemic began that the airline had not recorded a loss after travel restrictions affected the airline industry as a whole.

Loganair, which was recently put up for sale with the hope of new owners taking over the business by 2023, also reported that despite reduced passenger volumes during the early part of the year amid restrictions and related uncertainties, adversely impacting the total passenger numbers achieved for the full year, the airline carried more than 910,000 passengers and in 2022, experienced its busiest summer to date.

Charter and contract operations have been highlighted in its return to profitability and the airline has expanded its contract work in support of the energy industry at Aberdeen and now counts several major football and Rugby SuperLeague teams amongst its client base for bespoke aircraft charter services.

The statutory accounts also document for the first time that Loganair has secured a new long-term, five-year contract from February 1, 2022 with Royal Mail to undertake its Highlands and Islands air services, delivering to Scottish islands by day and connecting to Royal Mail’s national network each night.

Four larger ATR72-500 Freighter aircraft have been introduced to replace Saab 340 Freighters for the new contract, with the older Saab aircraft being retired as part of wider fleet renewal plans.

Jonathan Hinkles, Loganair’s chief executive, said: “The efforts of every member of Loganair’s team throughout the pandemic, and the diversified nature of our business, have enabled the airline to return to profitability far sooner than many of our UK airline industry peers.

“It has, without doubt, been an incredibly tough two years. Even so, our trading results, strengthening balance sheet, and our comprehensive GreenSkies environment programme mean that we are wholly confident that Loganair is now in the strongest position of any UK regional airline to weather incoming storms affecting the wider economy.”