Reliability of Wick/Aberdeen flights put at 86% over 12-month period
Reliability on the Wick/Aberdeen air link was running at up to 90 per cent at the start of this year before dropping to 72 per cent over the first few weeks of March, it has emerged.
The figures were supplied to the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council following an approach to David Swanson, project officer for the Wick public service obligation (PSO).
However, chairman Allan Farquhar was not entirely satisfied with the amount of detail in the response when he gave an update at the May meeting of the community council.
There have been numerous complaints about delays and late cancellations on the service, which is operated by Eastern Airways.
Mr Farquhar told fellow RBWCC members: “We have had some information back from David Swanson on the reliability of the service and I must admit, when I read those figures, it certainly didn’t reflect how everybody has seen it.
“One thing we’ll go back and ask him is that although flights took place there’s no indication of how long they were delayed for, or how the compensation has been dragged for people as well.”
In a written request to Mr Swanson in early April, Mr Farquhar noted that the reliability of the service, and delays in paying compensation for cancelled flights, had been “under the spotlight of late”.
In reply, Mr Swanson said he did not hold data on how many compensation claims were outstanding. However, he had asked Eastern Airways to provide those figures.
The statistics provided by Mr Swanson indicated that overall reliability was running at 86 per cent for the period from April 2024 until March 2025. Month by month, the percentage figures were: April 88, May 74, June 78, July 90, August 92, September 80, October 98, November 91, December 88, January 90, February 88 and March (up to the 23rd) 72.
In April, an approach was made to Loganair by Caithness resident Jacqueline Innes asking whether some of its flights to and from Orkney could stop off in Wick.
Loganair’s destinations from Kirkwall Airport include Edinburgh, Glasgow and London Heathrow as well as Aberdeen and Inverness.
Mrs Innes, from Reay, started a Facebook group following concerns over Eastern Airways’ Wick/Aberdeen service. The group now has more than 500 members.
At this month’s RBWCC meeting, co-opted member Claire Mackenzie gave an illustration of the limited flight options available from Wick.
Mrs Mackenzie explained: “I have a meeting next month in Edinburgh and my boss is going to that meeting. He’s sitting in Kirkwall – he can get there and get back in the same day. But I’m going to have to go down on the Monday for the meeting on the Tuesday and come home on Wednesday.”
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Mrs Mackenzie also said she was finding the cost of Wick/Aberdeen flights prohibitive, having looked at making bookings for later in the year.
She stressed: “I’ve used that flight quite a lot and I’ve never, thankfully, been cancelled or delayed.”
However, she said the cost of flying to Aberdeen and back for a family of four meant she would choose to “take the car” instead.
Figures announced this month showed a drop of nearly 25 per cent in passenger numbers using Wick John O’Groats Airport, largely as a result of changes to subsidised flight timetables.
Flights were initially reduced from twice a day to once a day on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in October last year due to low demand for the morning midweek service.
In March 2025, Highland Council received confirmation from the Scottish Government that it would continue to provide funding for the Wick/Aberdeen PSO into the new financial year.
The Scottish Government pledged up to £1 million again for 2025/26, with the local authority continuing with its yearly commitment of £300,000.
Just 11 days after the Scottish Government funding announcement, another revised Wick PSO timetable came into effect with Monday and Friday morning flights also dropped from the schedule.
The service now runs one flight each way, Sunday to Friday. There are no flights on a Saturday.