Scotland's airline market shrinks. Its airline, Loganair, expands

According to data from OAG Schedules Analyser, total seat numbers from Scotland's airports will fall by 3.0% in 2019. This will be the second successive year of capacity decline, after a 0.7% drop in 2018.

This reversal in growth contrasts with an increase of 20.3% between 2014 and 2017. At least to some extent, airlines (especially LCCs) were tempted into growth in Scotland by the promise of a cut in air passenger duty by the Scottish government in 2015. The SNP-led government's recent change of mind would seem to be a contributory factor in the capacity reduction.

Among the leading airlines serving Scotland that are still growing this year, the one that is growing fastest is Loganair.

Styling itself as Scotland's airline, it emerged from its previous life as a Flybe franchise operator to flying under its own brand in Sep-2017. Loganair took on a fleet of Embraer regional jets from its bankrupt former sister company flybmi in Feb-2019 to add to its turboprops.

It is the fifth largest airline overall in Scotland (after easyJet, Ryanair, BA and Flybe), but number one on routes within Scotland. This summer 2019 it is launching a number of new routes and it has opened a base at Newcastle.