Scotland’s airline, Loganair, celebrates its 60th birthday and has gone on to become the UK’s largest regional airline.
In 1962 Loganair’s founder Willie Logan, owner of a construction company, bought air taxi firm Capital Services which he had used to travel the country between building sites.
And in October 1963 Loganair’s first scheduled flight took off between Dundee and Turnhouse Airport, Edinburgh, to transport Tay Road Bridge workers.
Read more: Scottish islands airlinks cannot be understated, says Loganair chief
As the 60th anniversary is marked, here are just some of the more lively and entertaining events and passengers who have travelled with them:
1977 - 10th anniversary of Loganair’s Orkney inter-isles air service
Margaret Thatcher made an unscheduled stop in Kirkwall
The then Leader of HM Opposition – Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher – was due to visit Shetland that day but due to fog in Sumburgh, her flight was diverted to Kirkwall and she landed into the early stages of the low-key anniversary event. However, she made an off-the-cuff speech declaring: “I marvel that you get anything on schedule at all in these islands.”
Mrs Thatcher is pictured with MD Duncan McIntosh, journalist Ian Archer from The Herald and Captain Andy Alsop who was the Senior Pilot in Orkney.
2015 – Carrying hedgehogs from Benbecula to Glasgow to assist depopulation of hedgehogs as they are not indigenous to the Western isles.
HRH the Duke of Gloucester marked the 50th anniversary of the Orkney service
2017 - 50th anniversary of services to Westray – HRH the Duke of Gloucester, visited Westray and Papa Westray. The duke looked up at the Loganair route map asking which airport it was in Scotland at which Prince Charles ran one of the Queen’s Flight aircraft off the end of the runway.
2018 – Carriage of passenger and pet parrot for psychiatric treatment for the parrot, completed over a number of months travelling weekly.
Seal pup was flown to Glasgow in 2018
Also a two-week-old seal took to the skies, after Loganair received an unusual passenger request for an abandoned pup to be flown to Glasgow.
The young pup was rescued by local vet David Buckland on Eriskay in the Western Isles, after occupants of a house overlooking Prince’s Beach found her.
The baby seal, accompanied by the vet from the Southern Isles Veterinary Practice, flew from Benbecula to Glasgow before travelling to the SSPCA National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Alloa.
2022 – carriage of Blue Crowned Laughing Thrush, zoo transfer from Edinburgh to Jersey (Durrell).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here