...Making it all the more worthwhile just to go straight to London etc and avoid unnecessary tram and hotel costs

No need for a based A320. easyJet can operate in from many of there bases. Ryanair too although a 156Y A319 may be easier to fill than a 189Y 737. 1 base aircraft, particularly when they're A320/737s are not very efficient at all. An E145 perhaps but not a 150+ seater.

I'm not sure how travelling via London would save hotel costs. They're necessary for those 6am bargain flights, whichever airport you use. And the first train from Inverness gets to Gateway just after 9.

So getting to Edinburgh gateway doesnt help either then? A tiny fraction of low cost flights are '6 am bargain flights' and not everyone wants low cost which are also less helpful for long haul connections. There are lots of options ex INV now for connecting without overnight stays and risky rail then tram connections with luggage etc.
You can be in London arriving at 0830 if needed (INV-LGW)

By 8.30 every based plane is in the air. After that you mainly get the planes the long haul planes that came in earlier.

And anyway there are more flights to Manchester than to an single London airport.

New early-morning Inverness to Amsterdam flights - BBC News

New scheduled flights have been introduced between Inverness and Amsterdam.
KLM has added a 06:00 weekday flight from the Highlands airport and an evening flight from Schiphol.



Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial) said the flights would allow people to spend a full day in the Netherlands before returning home.


It is the latest addition from KLM since it started Inverness-Amsterdam flights last year.

BA seem to be offering very cheap deals from Inverness. Cheaper than GLA/EDI/ABZ and even LHR.

Was checking business class to Chicago.

BA from INV via LHR: £1301 (AA with a BA flight number)
BA from LHR : £2591 (AA with a BA flight number)

Big savings in other cabins too. Savings are more than just the APD...

.... lets hope its not savings for empty cabins

I'm thinking it might be an error fares... but on FlyerTalk someone told me they got New York for around £250 rtn in economy.

Modern Accounting - all to do with cost allocation and where you hide the profits

Aer lingus were also doing a offer for same fare from inverness via dub

They're possibly trying to send a message to KLM? You know, the type of message that it tied to a brick?

Long haul fares are often much cheaper from distant airports than from the LHR or MAN. I live in Spain and a C class fare to Asia from my local airport using IB regional to MAD, than BA to LHR and onward to Asia, often costs me up to £1,400 less than a colleague flying BA MAN/LHR/Asia (the long-haul sector being on the same plane on the same day). The economics long-haul airfares!

I think there is an APD reduction/elimination from Inverness that is not available from ABZ/GLA/EDI. I do know of folks that got INV-JFK for £258 return with KLM!

Embraer 145
 

I hear that loganair are to start operating the embraer 145 from Inverness airport but I don't know on what routes it will be used on.

new start-up?
 

Noticed this in last week's local:

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp...-central-belt/

I seem to recall there was an new start-up airline rumoured last year, & ATR42 was the type mentioned.

A realistic prospect?

Even though high priced 'legacy' flights didnt work years ago, there is some chance that a completely different model (nearer low cost, tourist and connection related rather than business)
£99 set fares would not be unreasonable if that made a profit (some loganair flights are over £350!!)
Good luck to them I say. Though remains to be seen if we ever see it.

Some further research shows that "Thisle Airways" has been in the making since 2014, so it looks a bit like a non-starter.

Can't see it. It takes too long to get through an airport and there's too many restrictions on what you can get through an airport with. They'd need to be offering impossibly high frequencies to make it worthwhile against driving, trains or coaches (which are also a lot better now than they were in the past).

Any reason for the continuing desire to have a pop at Loganair in every post? Just curious. I think you'll find plenty of examples where domestic fares are way higher than that - it's not uncommon to see fares of over £300 one-way on Scotland-London nowadays on peak flights.