Loganair plans to quit Norwich and cancel flights

Loganair plans to leave Norwich Airport, putting 44 jobs on the line. Pic: submitted (Image: Free usage in connection with accompanying news release/contributed article. Photography by Paul Collins, head of visual at Deep)

The Scottish airline said its Norwich base - which employs 44 people - is no longer viable following a lack of passenger numbers.

As a result the jobs of all 44 staff are at risk, including pilots, cabin crew and engineers.

The airline has said that following consultations this week it plans to use aircraft and crews from its Scottish bases from February.

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A spokesman for the airline added that it will continue to fly out of Norwich to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Jersey.

The airline said the major reason for the closure was "a lack of improvement in passenger numbers on the route to Manchester following the introduction of Embraer jets earlier this year".

Should plans go ahead following the consultation, the route will close on January 5.

Loganair managing director Jonathan Hinkles said: "It's with sincere regret and a heavy heart that we have to outline proposals to close our operating base at Norwich. "It's a hugely disappointing outcome following the tremendous hard work earlier in the year to transition our Norwich crews and engineers to the Embraer jet fleet."

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He went on: "We will be working to minimise redundancies through offering deployments at alternative bases and we hope that these colleagues will stay with us, but it is recognised that some members of the team may not be able to take up such offers and thus sadly some redundancies are likely."