ON THE SOAPBOX: Jonathan Hinkles - CEO Loganair *

Loganair at Newquay

It's with a degree of sadness that none of Loganair's customers will be seeing this welcome sign from 31 October. We've taken the decision to suspend all of our winter flights to and from Cornwall Airport Newquay in light of the airport management's decision to incentivise unsustainable operations by other airlines.

With fuel prices remaining stubbornly high, inflation rising and consumer confidence faltering across the economy, we simply don't see scope for our flights to Manchester, Edinburgh and Newcastle to remain viable.

We've written to customers this afternoon to let them know. I'm grateful for their support and loyalty over the last two years as we've worked hard to build our network at Cornwall Airport Newquay throughout the stop-start phases of the pandemic and the industry's recovery from it.

For now, Loganair will be consolidating our focus at other regional airports including Exeter, Cardiff and Southampton, where the airport teams recognise and value the benefits that year-round, sustainable connectivity brings.

I believe the airport's decisions are as short-sighted as they are short-termist, and will have genuinely adverse consequences for Cornwall's year-round air connectivity. For a start, it's absolutely crackers to incentivise a new air service that will compete head-on with a route that the airport's own sole shareholder - Cornwall Council - subsidises another airline to fly under a PSO mechanism. How can that be a sensible use of taxpayer funds for Cornwall, or the UK more broadly?

As Bob Crandall of American Airlines once said: "This industry is always in the grip of its dumbest competitor." After two years of hard work at Cornwall Airport Newquay, it's depressing to now see that quote is more relevant than ever.

Jonathon Hinkles  - September 2022

www.loganair.co.uk

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Peter Villa, United Kingdom

Well said Jonathan. I see that Council owned airports continue with short term strategies to the detriment of their long term survival as an airport, or do they have another agenda to turn the site into a more lucrative industrial/residential estate. I see Newquay has also given notice to the Cornwall Aviation Museum.

David Starkie, United Kingdom

Well said, Mr Hinkles.