LOGANAIR is to end flights from its spiritual home of Dundee “with great regret” by axing services to Belfast and Birmingham from December due to lack of passengers.
The move will also come as a major blow to Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (Hial), which bought the airport five years ago.
Loganair, which markets itself as “Scotland’s airline”, launched its first scheduled flights from Dundee in 1963 when founder Willie Logan won the tender to build the Tay Road Bridge.
When the carrier relaunched flights from the airport in 2008 with the Belfast City and Birmingham services on behalf of Flybe, Loganair chairman - now president - Scott Grier said: “It is a good feeling to be returning to Dundee. Establishing a new base in Dundee is an exciting development for us and we look forward to building on it.”
The flights will cease from 2 December, leaving Dundee with a sole year-round route to London City airport along with summer flights to Jersey.
However, Loganair said it would retain its aviation engineering base at Dundee airport and there would be no compulsory redundancies.
A spokesman said: “”It is with great regret that we announce the withdrawal of services. Declining passenger numbers have led to the routes becoming unsustainable.”
Hial managing director Inglis Lyon said: “Clearly, the loss of two scheduled services will have a serious impact on passenger levels at Dundee, at a time when numbers were beginning to rally.”
