Bluegrass Airlines

October 2005

ORKNEY INTER-ISLAND FLIGHTS

By Allan Lowson

The Ring of Brodgar – copyright Internet Guide to Scotland

“Beyond Britannia, where the endless ocean opens, lies Orkney”

Orosius, fifth century AD

The Orkney Islands Inter-island Air Service

The Orkney Islands lie just to the north of mainland Scotland, or as Orcadians would probably have it Scotland lies to the south of the Orkneys. Orkney consists of about 70 small islands 16 km north of Caithness in northern Scotland. The largest island in the group is known as "The Mainland"; about 20 of the islands are inhabited and seven have airfields used by the inter-island air service.

Orkney's administrative capital is Kirkwall on The Mainland. This is the source point of all the inter-island air services and also the air services to points beyond the islands.

The climate of Orkney is quite temperate for such a northerly latitude, but the winds and sea currents can be ferocious. Because of this, there has been support for an air service from the time of the earliest aviation links to the mainland.

The first inter-island service was provided by Highland Airways in 1934 using Monospar and DH-84 Dragon aircraft. Scottish Airways was formed on 12 August 1937 after a merger between Highland Airways, Northern Airways and Scottish Motor Traction Company.

During WWII the service was provided by Scottish Airways using DH-89 Dragon Rapide aircraft.

Currently Loganair operate the service on behalf of the Orkney Islands Council. Loganair also operate the air services which link Orkney to the Scottish mainland and the Shetlands to the North.

Timetables

A Loganair DHC-6 provides the Orkney Islands Council air services between Kirkwall and the Northern Isles seven days a week. As the flights vary in stage length from two minutes, the shortest scheduled flight in the world, to a marathon fifteen minutes you could be forgiven for thinking that the timetable is boringly repetitive. In fact pilots in the Orkneys are kept on their toes by schedules that vary day to day in the times of flights and the order of visits to the outlying islands. Add to this the facts that all the runways beyond the Mainland are less than 1840 feet and they are frequently barely distinguishable from the surrounding grassland and you will be kept busy sticking to the schedules below. If you cannot find the time to manage all seven days, the full permutation of scheduled flights can be covered by the Monday, Wednesday and Saturday schedules.

Monday
Kirkwall dep.	EGPA	0815	0910	1015	1115	1500	1555	1650
Sanday arr.	EGES	--	--	--	--	--	--	1700
Sanday dep.		--	--	--	--	--	--	1707
North Ronaldsay arr.	EGEN	0830	--	--	1130	1515	--	--
North Ronaldsay dep.		0837	--	--	1137	1522	--	--
Stronsay arr.	EGER	--	--	--	--	--	--	1712
Stronsay dep.		--	--	--	--	--	--	1718
Westray arr.	EGEW	--	0922	--	--	--	--	--
Westray dep.		--	0929	--	--	--	--	--
Papa Westray arr.	EGEP	--	0931	--	1145	--	1607	--
Papa Westray dep.		--	0938	--	1152	--	1614	--
Stronsay arr.	EGER	--	--	1023	--	--	--	--
Stronsay dep.		--	--	1030	--	--	--	--
Sanday arr.	EGES	--	--	1035	--	--	--	--
Sanday dep.		--	--	1042	--	--	--	--
Westray arr.	EGEW	--	--	--	--	--	1616	--
Westray dep.		--	--	--	--	--	1623	--
Kirkwall arr.	EGPA	0852	0950	1052	1205	1537	1635	1727

Tuesday
Kirkwall dep.	EGPA	0815	0910	1010	1450	1545	1645
Sanday arr.	EGES	--	0921	--	--	1556	--
Sanday dep.		--	0928	--	--	1603	--
North Ronaldsay arr.	EGEN	--	--	1025	--	--	1700
North Ronaldsay dep.		--	--	1032	--	--	1707
Stronsay arr.	EGER	--	0933	--	--	1608	--
Stronsay dep.		--	0940	--	--	1615