Eastern Airways has won a £30million contract with oil giant BP to ferry staff between Aberdeen and Sumburgh in Shetland with the creation of 25 jobs.
The airline will provide the flights in support of BP’s offshore activities west of Shetland starting in June.
Two aircraft from Eastern’s Jetstream 41 fleet based in Aberdeen will initially operate the service which will then move to the company’s larger Saab 2000.
Paul Alcock, managing director at Eastern Airways, said: “This is a major contract for us to have been awarded. We look forward to providing essential transport services to support BP’s significant investment programme in the Shetlands.
“This is a further addition to an important part of our business, as we already operate services for the Integrated Aviation Consortium between Aberdeen and Scatsta.”
Mark Hardie, BP’s UK logistics infrastructure manager, said: “The west of Shetland area is an important part of BP’s future in the North Sea, and I’m pleased we are able to create new jobs in Aberdeen and Shetland through this contract award.
“We look forward to working with Eastern Airways in the coming years to provide a safe and reliable service to transport personnel to and from Shetland in support of our current and future operations.”
Eastern Airways operates a network of 11 scheduled routes across the UK from Aberdeen. Last month the airline boosted the number of flights between the Granite City and Southhampton.
The Humberside-based airline first started scheduled services from Aberdeen in 1997 and its current destinations from the north-east airport include Wick, Stornoway, Stavanger, Newcastle, Durham Tees Valley, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, East Midlands, Norwich, Cardiff and Southampton.
It operates a fleet of 30 regional aircraft operating from 20 airports in the UK, Norway and France.