Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Parcels take priority on island flights with newspapers booked for later departure

The Press and Journal
The Press and Journal

Daily newspapers will only touch down in Shetland in mid-afternoon for the next two weeks due to a lack of space on the early morning mail flight as a result of the “rapid” rise in the volume of parcels being sent to the isles.

Loganair chief executive Jonathan Hinkles said papers should start arriving into Shetland earlier in the day again on weekdays when an early morning passenger plane from Aberdeen is reinstated to the airline’s schedule in mid-June.

The increase in deliveries to Shetland has meant that a special arrangement put in place during the lockdown between Loganair and the Royal Mail for newspapers to be carried on the early morning mail flight has ended due to a lack of space.

Loganair chief Hinkles explained that newspapers normally fly to Shetland on the first scheduled flight of the day from Aberdeen to Sumburgh.

Since the start of the pandemic, though, there has only been one scheduled flight from Aberdeen as Loganair moved to a skeleton service – with the plane departing at 1.45pm.

“With this in mind, Loganair made arrangements with Royal Mail for newspapers to be carried on the Royal Mail dedicated freighter aircraft which leaves Aberdeen at 07:20 on six days per week,” Hinkles said.

“However, the volume of mail – particularly parcels – to Shetland has continued to rise rapidly in recent weeks to the point where there now simply isn’t enough space on the Royal Mail flight to carry newspapers together with the mail, which must travel to meet the Universal Service Obligation.”

From mid-June, there will be an early flight again.

“For the two weeks in the meantime, Loganair will fly newspapers on the first available flight of the day north which will be the 13:45 departure from Aberdeen on weekdays and 09:30 on Saturdays.”