Loganair (LM, Glasgow International) may be within weeks of a “firm” offer to buy the carrier, with a detailed bid expected to be on the table soon, chief executive Jonathan Hinkles told The Shetland Times on August 7.
There has been “a good level of interest” in the company since news emerged last October that it was being put up for sale as its current owners had decided to retire from the business. The sole shareholders, brothers Stephen and Peter Bond, aged 72 and 61 respectively, “are working to find a new custodian for 'Scotland’s airline'”, Hinkles said at the time.
He has now told The Shetland Times that Loganair - the United Kingdom’s biggest regional airline by passenger numbers and fleet size and which employs 840 people - does not have to be “sold by an exact date” and stressed that there is no rush for a sale. But, he added, the brothers are hoping that what has proven to be strong interest in the sale “will materialise into something firm in the coming weeks”.
On the same day, a spokesperson for Loganair told the Scottish newspaper The Herald: “The sale process is proceeding as expected and we hope to provide an update later in the year.”
The brothers previously ran Bond Offshore Helicopters out of Aberdeen Dyce Airport, a carrier that tapped into the North Sea oil and gas crew replacement requirements before it was sold and rebranded as Babcock MCS Offshore (Aberdeen Dyce) in 2016.
According to ch-aviation fleets data, Loganair currently deploys a mix of thirty-seven ATR - Avions de Transport Régional, De Havilland Canada, Embraer, and Saab (Sweden) aircraft on 60 routes mostly within the UK but also to Norway, Denmark, and Ireland.
