Highland Airways

Highland Airways

IATA ICAO Call sign 8H HWY HIWAY
Founded	1991
Fleet size	9
Destinations	Benbecula Inverness Shetland Islands Stornoway Cardiff Anglesey
Headquarters	Inverness Airport, Scotland, United Kingdom
Website	www.highlandairways.co.uk

Highland Airways is a Scottish airline based in Inverness, Scotland. It operates passenger and freight charters as well as scheduled services from its main base at Inverness Airport. Other services include newspaper distribution to the northern and Western Isles, Royal Mail flights to the Western Isles and charter services for corporate clients. Aircraft are also based atCardiff International Airport.

The company holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, it is permitted to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

History

The airline was established and started operations in 1991. It was originally founded as Air Alba, operating for four years as a flying school. It was renamed Highland Airways in February 1997. When the newspaper industry relocated their charter departure point for Scottish islands to Inverness in 1998, Highland won the contract to provide two BAe Jetstream 31 aircraft per day for this task. One of these aircraft also carried business and leisure passengers on its "Island hopper" service as well as freight.

Highland also expanded into contract work for the oil industry based in Aberdeen during 1998. Highland aircraft facilitated crew changes, business delegations, emergency freight or technician movements for the industry, meaning Highland Airways aircraft were regular visitors to the west coast of Ireland, the Faroe Islands and destinations in Norway including Stavanger and Bergen. The airline also began operating corporate charter services, most notably for BAE Systems, providing a daily service between Glasgow and the company's Filton Aerodrome, as well as flights for financial companies, electronics, utilities, whisky and the public sector.

General aviation and ground handling facilities were established at Inverness under the name Highland Aviation Services, initially developed to serve the airline's own handling needs, expanded to Stornoway, Benbecula, Inverness and Glasgow, and now provides solutions to other operators.

Highland Airways secured the Royal Mail daytime delivery contract from Glasgow to the Western Isles, sub-contracting a Shorts 360 for the work. The aircraft, based at Glasgow, also operates ad hoc freight charters between Royal Mail work, mainly at night and on Sundays.

Experience with Jetstream, Cessna and ATR aircraft allow the airline to carry out engineering work for third party operators at its engineering facility, and has recently managed an ATR 42 in operation for Air Lithuania.

Highland has also won a 5 year contract to operate, crew and maintain two Cessna F406 reconnaissance aircraft on behalf of the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency. These aircraft are based in Inverness and wear SFPA markings.

In March 2007 Highland Airways underwent a management buyout from Atlantic Holdings led by A Mossman and has 100 employees (at Jan 2008).

Highland Airways now operate an intra-Wales flight connecting the north (Anglesey Airport) to the south (Cardiff Airport). Highland operate a BN2 Islander aircraft from Oban to Coll Colansay and Tiree under a contract with Argyll and Bute Council

Destinations

Highland Airways operates services to the following domestic scheduled destinations (at February 2007):

• Scotland
  • Benbecula
  • Inverness (Inverness Airport)
  • Shetland Islands
  • Stornoway (Stornoway Airport)
• Wales
  • Anglesey (RAF Valley)
  • Cardiff

Note: Service between Benbecula and Stornoway is under contract from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.

Fleet

The Highland Airways fleet consists of the following aircraft (at Feb 2008 ) :

Highland Airways Fleet

Aircraft	Total	Passengers	Routes
BAe Jetstream 31	5	18	All routes

External links

• Highland Airways
• Photos of Highland Airways aircraft