Loganair to offer air ambulance duties

Loganair managing director Jonathan Hinkles.

Loganair will be able to transfer Covid-19 patients from Shetland to the mainland by the end of this week.

Airline chief executive Jonathan Hinkles posted on LinkedIn that the company had received approval that they would be able to use one of its Saab 340 aircraft as an air ambulance.

Loganair confirmed on Monday that the converted Saab 340 passenger plane “will be available to carry Covid-19 patients from all island groups to the mainland from later this week”.

That will take the strain off of the RAF, which has sent aircraft from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to Sumburgh twice in the last month to transport coronavirus patients to Aberdeen.

In his LinkedIn post, Mr Hinkles said that a crew of volunteers had been in for final training and a “dress rehearsal”  in the converted aircraft last week.

Earlier this month, Loganair announced they had altered one of their twin otter aircraft for the same purpose.

Both the twin otter and Saab 340 will be based at Glasgow Airport but will be available for use across Scotland.

More in this Friday’s edition of The Shetland Times.