A businessman has hit out at the money he claims his firm and others are losing because of delays on the Loganair flights from Inverness to Manchester.
Innes Beaton is operations director of Affric, an environmental consultancy firm based at Dores.
Speaking after one of his employees was delayed at Inverness Airport for more than seven hours yesterday, he said: “We have a client in the Manchester area and we spend a lot of time on this flight. It never departs on time and never arrives on time. It is shambolic. It’s almost like a third world airline.”
The flight, which was due to take off at 6.35am, eventually left Inverness at 2.15pm.
Mr Beaton continued: “This was yet another flight from Inverness Airport delayed due to a technical fault on the aircraft. An airport announcement stated the replacement aircraft also had a technical fault and would not be landing.
“I had a staff member who was in the airport since 6am with limited updates and a £5 voucher for her inconvenience, along with everyone else on the flight.
“Highland businesses are losing money due to this inadequate unreliable service.
“There is an issue over loss of earnings to businesses. My second issue is that I am concerned about the safety of these aircraft.”
He added: “When this last happened to a member of staff on January 11, I sought compensation from Loganair and was given the standard 250 Euro (£190 approximately).
“I was not satisfied as due to the lateness of the flight, the staff member did not arrive at her location until 1pm and the business lost £400 of billable time prior to the compensation. I’m still £210 out of pocket. We cannot be the only business who is affected by this in the North of Scotland.”
A spokesman for Loganair said: “BE6971 from Inverness to Manchester was scheduled to depart at 6.35am but was delayed until 2.15pm due to an issue that required spare parts and specialist engineers from another base to resolve. Loganair would like to apologise to passengers for the inconvenience caused.”
The company added that 87% of services on the Inverness to Manchester route between January and March departed within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
