Loganair will close its Dundee base and withdraw from the Scottish airport entirely on October 23, 2026, ending the DundeeβLondon Heathrow public service obligation route it has operated since 2014. Because Loganair is currently the only airline serving Dundee, its departure will leave the airport without any scheduled air services.
The Scottish regional carrier said the government-backed PSO contract had become financially unsustainable, according to ch-aviation. Earlier this year the airline had already pointed to rising maintenance costs and worldwide shortages of aircraft parts as pressures on the viability of its Dundee operation.
The Heathrow link is the headline casualty. Loganair currently flies the route twice daily on weekdays and once on Sundays β eleven weekly rotations β using ATR 42-500 turboprops. Schedule data published by AeroRoutes confirms the DundeeβLondon Heathrow service runs until October 23, 2026.
The withdrawal goes further than the Heathrow route alone. Services linking Dundee with Kirkwall in Orkney and Sumburgh in Shetland will also end, severing the airport's connections to the Northern Isles at the same time as its London access disappears.
The Dundee decision sits within a wider trimming of Loganair's network. AeroRoutes lists two further route cancellations in the second half of 2026: ManchesterβExeter, operated four times weekly with Embraer ERJ145 equipment, which ran until August 18, 2026; and ManchesterβSouthampton, a much denser fifteen-weekly ERJ145 operation, which ran until August 20, 2026.
Taken together, the three cancellations point to a carrier reassessing which thin regional markets it can still serve profitably. Loganair's business is built around exactly this kind of flying β short sectors, small aircraft, modest loads β and it is a model with very little margin for absorbing higher fuel, maintenance and airport costs.
The economics of the ATR 42-500 illustrate the squeeze. The type is a high-wing twin turboprop carrying a relatively small number of passengers per rotation, chosen precisely because it can serve routes a jet could never fill. But the cost base per seat on such an aircraft is high, and when parts availability tightens and maintenance bills climb, the arithmetic on a subsidised route can turn negative quickly.
Public service obligation routes exist to sustain connections the open market would not support, with a public authority underwriting the shortfall. Loganair's conclusion that the Dundee contract no longer works suggests the gap between the contracted support and the real cost of operating has widened beyond what the airline is prepared to carry.
For Dundee itself the consequences are significant. An airport with no scheduled operator has limited commercial function, and its future will depend on whether another carrier is prepared to take on the PSO when it is retendered. Until that happens, passengers in the region face surface journeys to Edinburgh, Glasgow or Aberdeen for onward connections.
Loganair has not indicated that further route reviews are pending beyond those already filed, and the three cancellations announced so far remain the extent of the confirmed changes.
Sources: ch-aviation, AeroRoutes. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Marco Bianchi.
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