Loganair

Is Loganair safe?

Yes. Loganair, Scotland's regional airline, has had no fatal accident in 20 years and has written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary one airliner in that time, with no deaths. It flies under the UK Civil Aviation Authority and holds IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. We score it 79. That is lower than most UK airlines because of what it flies and where: older turboprops and small jets into island airports exposed to the full force of the Atlantic, and a record of serious incidents that the AAIB keeps investigating.

Island flying is the job

Loganair runs the lifeline routes to Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, alongside routes from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh to England, the Channel Islands and beyond. Many island airports have short runways, no radar and only a flight information service. In winter the crews deal with gales, icing and low cloud on almost every rotation.

The most famous of these airports is Barra, where Twin Otters land on the beach. Highlands and Islands Airports calls it the only scheduled beach runway in the world. It sounds risky, but the Twin Otter is built for short, unpaved strips, and the beach has been in use for about 90 years. In Orkney, Loganair flies small Britten-Norman Islanders between the islands.

That is why the environment scores 70, close to Widerøe at 68 and Icelandair at 72. It is a measure of the conditions, not of the airline.

What the AAIB has investigated

The UK investigators have looked into Loganair far more often than into a large mainline airline, partly because its flights so often meet bad weather. The most serious recent cases:

• Sumburgh, 15 December 2014. A Saab 2000 was struck by lightning after a go-around. The crew pulled back, but the autopilot was still engaged and pushing the other way. The aircraft dived to 1,100 ft above the sea at 80 knots over its maximum speed before they recovered it. Nobody was hurt; the AAIB report looked closely at how the crew could miss that the autopilot was on.
• Stornoway, 2 January 2015. A Saab 340B swung off the runway at about 65 knots in a strong, gusty crosswind on take-off. The power levers were not brought back to ground idle, and the aircraft came to rest 250 metres off the paved surface with its nose gear collapsed. One passenger was seriously hurt and the aircraft was written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary.
• Edinburgh, 5 June 2017. A Saab 340 climbed into severe icing and turbulence; the stick shaker fired three times before the crew descended to regain speed.
• Aberdeen, 27 August 2022. Both pilots' attitude and navigation displays on an ATR 42 went blank for three seconds and the autopilot dropped out. The AAIB could not find the root cause and asked ATR in 2026 to keep looking.
• Aberdeen, 23 July 2024. An ATR 42 engine failed in the cruise and a loose fuel line fed a fire in the cowling. The crew put it out and landed safely.
• Jersey, 19 February 2026. On take-off, the monitoring pilot of an ATR 72-600 called STOP and pulled the power back, but the flying pilot rotated. The power went back on and the aircraft lifted off with the stick shaker, a stall warning, active. Nobody was hurt. The AAIB is investigating.

Several of these were technical and handled well. But the Jersey take-off and the earlier Stornoway excursion point at crew decisions, and the list is long for an airline of this size. Incidents score 72, the weakest of the three regional airlines we compare.

Loganair also had a Twin Otter run off the runway at Tiree in marginal weather in 2017 and two cabin crew were hurt in separate accidents on Embraer jets in 2024: one broke a foot when a galley bin fell on it before departure, and one hurt an ankle slipping on de-icing fluid in the climb.

How old is Loganair's fleet?

Old. Loganair flies ATR 42s and ATR 72s, Embraer ERJ-145 jets, Twin Otters and Islanders. The ATR 42 in the 2022 display failure was built in 1996, and Loganair's ERJ-145s date from around 2001. The Saab 340s and 2000s that flew most island routes a decade ago are gone, and new ATR 72-600s are arriving from lessors, the fourth in October 2025. Even so, much of the fleet is more than 20 years old, so it scores 55.

Flying Loganair: practical points

• Island flights are weather-dependent. If a flight to Barra, Sumburgh or the North Isles is cancelled or turns back, it is usually because the crew judged the wind, cloud or runway state outside limits. Leave slack in your plans for the ferry or the next day.
• Small aircraft move more. Sit near the wing for the smoothest ride on an ATR, and keep your belt on through the whole flight.
• On the Islander, you sit next to the pilot. There is no cabin crew, so listen to the pilot's briefing on doors and belts.

How we scored it

Oversight (92) and the accident record (86) carry Loganair: UK CAA oversight, IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary, and no fatal accident in 20 years. The fleet (55) and the incident record (72) pull it down, and the island network keeps the environment at 70. Overall 79, below Luxair and Widerøe at 83.