Loganair (LM, Glasgow International) announced on December 3 that it is to close its Norwich International base, with formal discussions commencing with the regional airline's 44-strong group of pilots, cabin crew and engineers at the airport.
The airline's managing director, Jonathan Hinkles, said that a major reason for the base closure had been poor loads on its Manchester International route following the introduction of E135s earlier this year, and that the sector was no longer viable. The domestic city pair is due to be suspended from January 5, 2020.
The airline will continue to operate from Norwich to Aberdeen Dyce, Edinburgh and Jersey, using aircraft and crews from its Scottish bases from February onwards.
Hinkles said: "It's with sincere regret and a heavy heart that we have to outline proposals to close our operating base at Norwich. It’s a hugely disappointing outcome following the tremendous hard work earlier in the year to transition our Norwich crews and engineers to the Embraer jet fleet.”
"Formal consultation discussions will commence this week with our Norwich staff. We will be working to minimise redundancies through offering deployments at alternative bases and we hope that these colleagues will stay with us, but it is recognised that some members of the team may not be able to take up such offers and thus sadly some redundancies are likely."
Hinkles added that the airline tried to renegotiate terms with suppliers, including the airport, but that the financial gap in the Norwich operation was too great to overcome. He concluded in saying that there were no plans to evaluate the future sustainability of other Loganair bases.
According to the ch-aviation PRO airlines module, Loganair operates a mixed fleet of regional turboprops and jets from bases that, aside from Norwich, include Aberdeen Dyce, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow International, Inverness, and Kirkwall. Its incoming fleet of twenty ATR42-500s are earmarked to replace its remaining Saab 2000s and Saab 340Bs, and could also replace some of its E135s and E145s.
