What's the chances the Friday Morning Flight will go, probably none !

Passengers figures at Wick Airport down by 25% year on year. (Behind a firewall, however found this from HIAL: "The biggest annual increase was seen at Islay where figures rose by 4.9% to 31,392, followed by Kirkwall airport which received 137,744 passengers, a 2.6% increase on the previous year.

Inverness airport was up 1.8% (805,946 passengers) with Sumburgh showing a small increase to reach 308,320 passengers.
Decreases were shown for all other airports. However, the year finished on a high with March figures showing a 3% increase against the same month in 2024 across the 11 airports operated by HIAL." )


This link works in incognito mode!
https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk...ers-ov-381550/

It's my return flight to Wick this bank holiday weekend. I'm dreading cancellations. But I've never flown from there... so I have to make the attempt.

T3563 Sunday 24th August depart Aberdeen 2:30pm (this flight was cancelled last Sunday - ominous)

T3568 Monday 25th August depart Wick 3:35pm (recent flights have operated)

Wish me luck... I'll need it!!!

OK litefoot - how was the trip? did you ever leave ABZ? Are you still in Wick??

According to FR24, both flights operated:
T3563 landed at Wick at 1458; T3568 landed at ABZ at 1554

How did it go?

EDIT: Just saw that both flights operated.

They did! I was so relieved. I'll write a trip report about it! :)

I notice Monday's flight to Wick was cancelled. Tuesday and Wednesday's flights there and back were delayed by 2 and a half hours. So I got lucky with the week I chose.

Well, turns out I booked that trip in the nick of time! Phew!

Very sorry for all the Eastern staff.

I've been writing a trip report about it and haven't posted it yet.

Will Loganair pick this route up, I wonder? Or will the cost of booking six hour taxi trips for passengers on cancelled flights deter them?

Loganair didn't tend to cancel many flights when they operated from Wick. Would be nice to see them back.

Wick was just about OK when it was the Saab 340 - never fighting off passengers but enough to keep it ticking over. With the Saabs long gone and ATRs with a lot more seats to fill then I don't see how that works.

How about a Kirkwall- Wick- Aberdeen service with just a quick stop in Wick?

Would Airtask not be interested in something like this? I see they are in the process of adding a Tecnam aircraft for the SYY-BEB, they had G-CMCY on demo earlier this year

Or they could "revive" the old BEA route , Glasgow-Edinburgh-Aberdeen-Wick-Orkney-Shetland ? :rolleyes:

…with a full meal service to boot

Loganair used to do Sumburgh Wick Edinburgh and Kirkwall Wick Inverness Glasgow. This island lobbies put an end to it.

They don't like extra stops!

Just had a thought, would Hebridean be in the running for the PSO?

Actually don't know the size of their aircraft, but given the rigmarole with Skybus selling NQY-LGW by Aurigny operated by Ascend Airways... anything is possible isn't it? :D

Ryanair should do a London, open up the world from our capital rather than Scottish flights

Hebridean only operate Islander aircraft as far as I am aware. The time its taking the Highland Council to sort out the Emergency Tender it won't be worth bothering. It's supposed to be a 4 month contract but can't see much happening before Christmas now. So really only 3 months don't know who would be interested in operating that short a contract. Air Task are the only other one I can think of and they also operate Islander Aircraft. Could Loganair operate it utilising one of the Scottish Government Twin Otters ?

Not sure how practical that would dragging them off Barra and Campbeltown for a Wick run only to trail all the way back.

I wonder if it might be better for the Wickers if they forget the idea of a direct Aberdeen flight and have a few flights with the islander from Wick to Kirkwall and back at times to connect with the Kirkwall flights to and from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. There seems to more than enough space on the ATRs, The SF34s had empty seats a lot of the time anyway. There used to be islander flights to and from wick years ago.