Loganair Bids Farewell to their Saab 340 Fleet
With its fleet of Saab 340s on the verge of retirement, Loganair gave enthusiasts and employees the opportunity to bid farewell to the Swedish turboprop at a special event in Glasgow. Stewart Marshall reflects the type’s career with Scotland’s airline
The Saab 340 has been the backbone of Loganair’s Highlands and Islands operations for almost a quarter of a century. In that time, venerable Swedish-build turboprop has demonstrated time and again its reliability and robustness, maintaining crucial air links in some of the most challenging operating conditions in Europe. With its fleet of Saab 340s on the verge of retirement, Loganair gave enthusiasts and employees the opportunity to bid farewell to the Swedish turboprop at a special event in Glasgow.
Answering the call
The Scottish carrier’s affiliation with the Saab happened almost by accident. In 1998 it took over control of two British Regional Airlines (BRAL) routes from Glasgow to Islay and Londonderry at very short notice, so quickly in fact that it didn’t have suffi cient equipment of its own to operate them. Consequently, Loganair wet-leased a pair of Short 360s from the former incumbent while it sourced its own aircraft and recruited additional crew. A further two routes were added later the same year, again fl own by the leased SD360s, but the ungainly type, while rugged (it was commonly referred to as the ‘Shed’), was also slow, noisy, and unpressurised, making it unpopular with passengers. This negative perception reaffi rmed Loganair’s commitment to acquire a more modern type better suited to the needs of the travelling public. It opted for the Saab 340B, a pressurised 34- seat regional aircraft built in Linköping in Southern Sweden and powered by General Electric CT7-9B turboprops. Loganair’s fi rst two examples, G-LGNA and ‘NB (c/n 340B-199 and 340B-216), were purchased from Minnesota-based Mesaba Airlines in the summer of 1999 and were an instant hit. The type was so popular it was later used to replace the larger British Aerospace ATP when Loganair took over the last remaining BRAL Highlands and Islands services in 2005.
Workhorse
By the late 2000s, the Glasgow based carrier’s fleet of Saab 340s had swollen to 16 examples, including two dedicated freighters to serve cargo and Royal Mail contracts across the Shetlands and Hebrides. Notably, these turboprops have worn several different liveries during their time in Scotland. As a long-time franchisee partner of British Airways, Loganair’s fleet initially wore full BA colours (with small ’Operated by Loganair’ titles on the nose). This gave way in 2008 to the white and blue of Flybe as a new partnership was agreed, with some examples even wearing the latter’s short-lived all-purple livery before the tie-up came to an end in 2017, bringing to a close a 24-year chapter as a franchise operator. Loganair celebrated its independence by unveiling a stylish new corporate identity, which combines the red, black, and white Loganair tartan with white. fuselage and black undersides. As the backbone to its fleet, the Saab 340 was the first aircraft type to wear these colours, with newly converted freighter G-LGNN (c/n 340B-197) rolling out of the paintshop at East Midlands Airport on April 21, 2017 proudly wearing its tartan and the name ‘RMA Orkney Flyer’, a nod to the ‘Royal Mail Aeroplane’ prefix featured on aircraft delivering mail to the Orkney Islands as far back as the 1930s.
Unsurprisingly, the Saab 340 has been instrumental to Loganair’s success and helped the carrier diversify its business. It has been a regular fixture across the network, including on routes such as Dundee to London, and from Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen to mainland Europe. The type found work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that left many others grounded, providing essential connectivity to the Scottish islands. One example was even retrofitted by Saab into an air ambulance, able to transport patients in isolation pods with space for their families too, a reflection of the 340’s impressive versatility.
Final chapter
Of course, all good things must come to an end and with the average age of Loganair’s Saab fleet pushing well over 30 years, the airline confirmed in November 2022 it would phase the remaining examples out of service under the final stage of its fleet renewalplan. In their place will be eight ATR 42/72s, which, when combined with the 15 aircraft already on strength, will make Scotland’s airline one the biggest operators of the Franco-Italian turboprop in Europe. The remaining Saabs are expected to be sold to an undisclosed North American operator where they are due to undergo cargo conversion before kicking off the next chapter, hauling parts for the automotive industry.
Reflecting on the type’s illustrious career, Loganair CEO Jonathan Hinkles remarked: “The Saab 340s have served us, and our customers, superbly well over the last two decades, but it’s time for us to transition to a new generation of aircraft. In selecting our future fleet, it’s important to have an aircraft that builds upon our environmental credentials while withstanding island weather conditions and providing accessibility for all customers in the communities we serve – we’ve found all those characteristics and more in the ATR 42/72.”
A fond farewell
With the final Saabs due to bow out this summer, Loganair opened the doors of its Glasgow engineering base on April 29 to give enthusiasts and employees past and present the opportunity to say their goodbyes. Attendees from across the UK were given the increasingly rare opportunity to roam around the hangar and explore the aircraft inside, consisting of a pair of Saab 340Bs on display, and an Embraer 145 and a partly-disassembled de Havilland Canada DHC-6-400Twin Otter undergoing scheduled line maintenance. Loganair’s charity partner, Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS), was also present, promoting its incredible work and raising funds through ticket sales and a raffle, the top prize for which was a unique coffee table fashioned from the wheel hub of a Twin Otter (complete with a plaque confirming how many landings that wheel had made on the beach runway at Barra). Between this and the multitude of other Loganair memorabilia and merchandise up for grabs, including free return flights on its network, the raffle was unsurprisingly a complete sell out. For the aviation enthusiasts, it provided a welcome chance to inspect the aircraft inside and out, and chat with the current Loganair crews andmaintenance personnel that had kindly volunteered their time to host the event, which raised a commendable £1,675 for CHAS. ‘’It’s simply wonderful that we can run events like this – raising much-needed funds for CHAS and hopefully inspiring many young visitors who have a keen interest in careers in engineering and as pilots,” Hinkles commented. “Many of our engineering apprentices were on hand as tour guides for the afternoon, joined by one or two of our pilots for tours of the aircraft flightdecks too. “My sincere thanks go to our hangar manager Steven and the entire Loganair team involved, and the Glasgow Airport Security team for their help with arrangements to make sure that we can make memories like this while keeping our airport safe and secure.’’
