Scottish airline Loganair has retired its Saab 340 aircraft after more than 24 years of service, making its historic final flight from Inverness to Glasgow.
The regional airline conducted its last Saab 340 service on January 25, flying LM340 flights from Kirkwall to Inverness and Glasgow airports. This mimics the flight path of the airline's first Saab 340.
The final flight was appropriately flown by Captain Eddie Watt, Loganair's longest serving pilot who joined the airline on October 1, 1996 and is still retired. He said: “It suits me to retire with an aircraft that has been a staple of my career. Piloting the Saab 340 I watched the whole of Scotland pass below me. It’s been an incredible 34 years of flying in this beloved aircraft.”
The flight touched down on the runway at Glasgow Airport to water cannons and piper salutes and coincided with the 41st anniversary of the world's first Saab 340 flight.
The fleet of 18 Saab 340 aircraft was primarily used for island services and completed more than 430,000 flights, both passenger and cargo, during the period, transporting more than eight million customers.
Memorable moments include transporting the Olympic flame to Shetland in Orkney and Stornaway in the Western Isles for the 2012 Olympics, and two of the airline's Saab 340s being converted into air ambulances during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide remote air transport on the islands. Patients access medical services on the mainland.
The Saab 340 is being replaced by the airline's new ATR turboprop aircraft, which Loganair says will be “able to carry up to 45 per cent more customers on some routes” and support its “ambition to offer lower airfares to a greater number of people”. They say they can. Loganair added that it has more pilots licensed to fly ATR aircraft.