Highlands and Islands Airports (HIAL) will stop all but essential flights from this Sunday due to coronavirus restrictions.
HIAL said in a statement today it would close all its airports to scheduled flights and general aviation from that date.
It has been liaising with the Scottish Government and its aviation partners to “ensure its airports can continue their unique role in providing lifeline services for our communities, now and into the future”.
It added: “It is important HIAL does all it can to limit the spread of infection, protect the health and wellbeing of our staff and have the necessary resilience in place to maintain its ability to service essential and emergency flights.
“In order to maintain these vital air links, we have made the difficult, but necessary, decision to close all our airports to scheduled flights and routine general aviation traffic with effect from Sunday, March 29, 2020.”
The company said it was working with Transport Scotland and Loganair to “agree a skeleton schedule that will ensure our airports continue to provide lifeline and essential services, including NHS passenger transfer, the Royal Mail and the oil and gas industry”.
Contingency measures would be put in place, it said, to ensure essential flights with the minimum of staffing levels.
HIAL’s managing director Inglis Lyon said: “Our airports are unique in that their core role is to provide lifeline services for our communities in the Highlands and Islands.
“They are essential to the continued delivery of medical and other critical supplies, the transport of key workers and also enable emergency flights for island communities. Now more than ever there is a need to safeguard those vital services.
“I appreciate this crisis is unknown territory for all of us and at this time we do not know how long these essential measures will remain in place.
“We could not maintain these services for our communities without the extraordinary team spirit and commitment displayed by our staff right across the HIAL group and I am indebted to them for their continued flexibility and dedication during a very difficult time for us all.”
