Loganair, the UK’s biggest operator of regional flights, has been put up for sale by the Scottish brothers who bought it 25 years ago.
The airline provides regular services between Derry and Britain.
The Paisley-based airline owned by Bond brothers Stephen, 72, and Peter, 61, flies 42 aircraft on 80 routes around the UK, Ireland and Norway.
The collapse of Flybe made it the largest domestic operator flying servicing non-London destinations. and when Flybe collapsed they snapped up some of its routes.
The brothers grew the airline from just six aircraft carrying 35,000 passengers. They previously owned Flybmi, which was a sister company to Loganair until its collapse in 2019, when it left hundreds of passengers stranded across Europe.
A number of its routes were subsequently taken over by Loganair.
The Sunday Times reported the brothers are understood to want to “step back” from the business after lending it “substantial” financial support during the pandemic.
They have been majority investors in Loganair since 1997 and have appointed Arrowpoint Advisory to deal with potential purchasers.
The airline reported a doubling of revenues to £161 million in the year to March, a healthy recovery from the pandemic, and is forecasting gross revenues of £240m and 1.4m passengers.
“It’s been a success story in terms of where we’ve got to, and the shareholders now feel it’s the right time to pass the baton onto new owners.”
It operates scheduled passenger flights, subsidised routes to non-commercially viable locations, Royal Mail contracts and serves customers in the offshore oil and gas industry.
Executive chairman Peter Simpson said the company was cautious but can see the recovery continuing.
He said it had recently repaid a £25m government Covid loan ahead of time and is trading “free of any bank debt”.
“It’s been a success story in terms of where we’ve got to, and the shareholders now feel it’s the right time to pass the baton onto new owners.”
Last month it suspended hundreds of its flights from Cornwall Airport Newquay scheduled between November and March.
Loganair said it would be directing investment into other UK regional airports, such as Southampton, Exeter and Cardiff.
