Loganair managed to halve its losses in the 12 months to March despite unprecedented turmoil as the airline industry faced the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Glasgow-based regional carrier reported a pre-tax loss of £5.6 million for the year against £12.7 million lost in the 2019-20 financial year. The underlying pre-tax trading loss for the year was £1.2 million.
The airline attributed the result to a combination of “careful cost controls and flexibility to rapidly change its business model” in the face of the pandemic.
Loganair entered into a new CLBILS loan facility of up to £25 million with Clydesdale Bank in July last year, with its owners committing a separate package of support of £11 million over two years.
Scheduled services were severely restricted due the impact of the crisis and the passenger numbers fell from 1.05 million in 2019-20 to 252,259 in 2020-21 as turnover more than halved from £169 million to £81 million.
In each case, these were claimed to be lesser reductions than those reported by other UK airlines.
The airline agreed a series of pay reductions for all staff. They returned to full pay from September 1.
Loganair’s cash balance at March 31 was £19.5 million.
All of its 42 aircraft are back in service, with data from European air traffic control provider Eurocontrol showing that Loganair has consistently been the only major European passenger airline operating more flights in October 2021 than in 2019.
Several UK domestic routes, together with flights to Ireland and Denmark, suspended during the pandemic have all now been re-opened – including 16 routes formerly flown by Flybe.
Flights to Norway from Edinburgh, Newcastle and Shetland will resume in summer 2022.
Chief executive Jonathan Hinkles said: “Without doubt, the last year has been the most challenging in Loganair’s 59-year history.
“The fact that we’ve been able to weather the storm is entirely thanks to the dedication and commitment of our people.
“We are incredibly grateful to all of them – and their contribution means that we believe Loganair is in the strongest position of any UK regional airline as we emerge from the pandemic.”
He added: “We’re cautiously optimistic about the future; although we’ll still see challenges including reduced demand for business travel and concerns about aviation’s impact on the environment, we are confident that we can comprehensively address these with the same agility and team spirit which has served us so incredibly well throughout the pandemic.”