Today, Loganair operates the most extensive domestic network in the UK, serving 29 destinations—including remote Scottish islands where it is the sole operator. This compares with 20 destinations served by easyJet and 11 by British Airways, underscoring Loganair’s unique reach and importance in connecting underserved regions.
The airline has also demonstrated a strong post-COVID recovery, reporting profits since April 2021. For the financial year from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, it achieved a £6.9 million profit and carried over 1.2 million passengers, highlighting its resilience and continued relevance in the UK aviation landscape.
This article examines Loganair’s network in 2025 and identifies its most profitable routes, contributing to the airline’s overall profitability in 2023–2024. Using our Apex product, it explores the key drivers behind Loganair’s recent financial success.
Findings
Loganair Network
In addition to its domestic network, Loganair serves destinations in three countries outside the UK, as shown in Chart 1. Nevertheless, over 95% of capacity remains focused on the UK market. Ireland follows with a relatively small share, while Denmark and Norway are markets where the airline has only a little presence. This distribution highlights the central importance of the UK domestic market to Loganair’s overall strategy.
Chart 1: Loganair's Capacity Share by Market
A closer look at the domestic network reveals a strong emphasis on intra-Scottish connectivity, which accounts for 42% of domestic capacity. This reflects the airline’s niche role in linking remote Scottish islands with major urban centres such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen. Cross-border routes between England and Scotland form the second-largest segment, followed by routes within England. Together, these three segments account for 91% of domestic capacity, with a smaller share allocated to lower-frequency services linking England and Northern Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Scotland and Wales.
Chart 2: Loganair's Capacity Share Domestic Market
Chart 3 further illustrates this focus: 61% of daily departures originate in Scotland, compared with 34% in England and only 5% in Northern Ireland and Wales. Within Scotland, the islands of Kirkwall (15 flights), Sumburgh (13 flights), and Stornoway (10 flights) stand out. These flights have an average of 58 seats per flight and mainly connect to inter-island routes or to major Scottish airports such as Inverness, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, whereas connections to England, Northern Ireland, or Wales require transfers through these airports.
Another concentration is found in the Isle of Man, which, as a Crown Dependency is part of the Common Travel Area. The island sees an average of 14 daily departures to seven destinations in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England. These include major cities such as London, Manchester, and Birmingham. Notably, two London airports are served—Heathrow and London City—highlighting the strategic importance of Loganair in maintaining connectivity between the Isle of Man and the rest of the UK.
Chart 3: Loganair's Daily Flight Departures and Destinations Served Across UK Airports
Loganair Profitability
Chart 4 shows that, despite Loganair’s smaller network of destinations outside the UK, the highest average profit margins are found in these international regional markets. The Scotland–Norway round-trip market has the highest average profit margin, followed by England–Norway and Scotland–Denmark. In contrast, the cross-border market between Scotland and England, while still profitable, has the lowest margin compared to the international routes.
On the other hand, routes to Northern Ireland from both England and Scotland show the largest losses within the network, with average profit margins of -26% and -38% respectively. This may be due to increased competition on these routes from other incumbent airlines, whereas the more profitable routes tend to be markets where Loganair is the sole operator.
Chart 4: Loganair's Average Profit Margin by Regional Pairwise
However, when looking at which routes generated profits in the period from April 2023 to March 2024, Chart 5 shows that some routes between Scottish destinations have high profit margins, despite the fact that, on average, these routes show a loss of around -5%, as Chart 4 shows. The services with high profit margins are primarily on the route connecting Glasgow (GLA) and Edinburgh (EDI) with Sumburgh (LSI), one of the Scottish islands. There is also the international service between Sumburgh (LSI) and Bergen (BGO) in Norway.
These are not the only cases: there are other profitable routes connecting the islands with mainland Scottish cities, such as Dundee (DND) – Kirkwall (KOI) and Inverness (INV) – Kirkwall (KOI). In addition, there are core routes between Scotland and England, such as Aberdeen (ABZ) – Bristol (BRS), Edinburgh (EDI) – Southampton (SOU), Aberdeen (ABZ) – Manchester (MAN), and Aberdeen (ABZ) – Birmingham (BHX). The high profitability on these routes demonstrate strong demand for direct connections between Scottish cities and the North West, the Midlands and South West of England, without the need to connect via London airports.
Chart 5: Loganair's Profit Margin for Profitable Routes
Conclusion
Loganair’s network strategy demonstrates a strong focus on underserved regions, particularly the Scottish islands, where the airline is the sole operator. This highlights its importance as a domestic carrier in the UK, connecting remote locations such as the Scottish islands with mainland Scotland, and from there to the rest of the country. Equally significant is the airline’s role in linking Scotland with the rest of the UK, especially with England, where many of its most profitable routes are concentrated. While some routes remain unprofitable, it is clear that connections between the Scottish islands and mainland Scotland are vital for the airline’s financial stability, alongside its regional international markets.
Moving forward, Loganair could consider expanding these routes further, connecting more medium and small cities directly to international destinations where demand for more convenient direct connections exists, while maintaining its commitment to being the cornerstone of domestic connectivity in the UK.
Banner image by Ronnierob under licence CC BY-SA 2.0
