Loganair summer flights from Glasgow to Cornwall: 5 need-to-know business stories

Hello and welcome to our daily digest of business, financial and economic news from around Scotland.

1. The UK’s largest regional airline is now flying between Glasgow and Newquay as part of its 2025 summer schedule.

Loganair, which is headquartered at Glasgow airport in Renfrewshire, said that flights to the seaside town in Cornwall will be available to book now for May until September next year.

Direct flights will cost £89.99, including hold and cabin luggage.

Last week, Loganair was named sustainable airline of the year by the European Regional Airline Association. Accounts to March last year said that the company made £10 million in profit for 2023.

Luke Lovegrove, chief commercial officer at the airline, said he thinks the Newquay route will “prove a popular choice” for holidaymakers next summer.

2. About 100 jobs have been cut at a vehicle paint factory in Fife after its owners said it planned to cease operations entirely.

The Silberline factory in Leven, which manufactures industrial pigments and coatings often used in cars, was bought by the German firm Eckart in January.

The business said that it “anticipates” the plant will fully close at the end of 2025, blaming “the global trend of regionalisation of the business.”

“This proposal and the decision about closing the Leven site has not been formulated lightly and is a result of the difficult situation we find ourselves in, caused by multiple factors,” said Alan Snaddon, operations director at Silberline.

3. Simon Kilonback has been appointed chief executive officer at the energy company SGN after joining the firm as its finance chief last year.

Kilonback was previously the chief financial officer of Transport for London. In May, former SGN chief executive Mark Wild resigned after he was appointed head of the high-speed rail project HS2.

SGN provides gas in Scotland and the south of England. Its most recent accounts registered £360 million of operating profits.

The company said the new chief executive will be focused on safety, driving efficiency and looking after vulnerable customers.

This week, SGN dispatched engineers to the Kincardine area in Fife after 1,300 properties were left without gas.

4. A Canadian technology company has bought three heating plants from Scottish Water in Glasgow, Stirling and Campbeltown.

Noventa Energy, which is headquartered in Toronto, said that the heat-from-wastewater plants will be upgraded with its own technology to cut emissions and expand heat generation capacity.

The sites currently provide heating to networks owned by Stirling council and Clyde Gateway, as well as a leisure centre owned by Argyll & Bute council. They also provide power to Scottish Water wastewater treatment plants in Stirling and Glasgow.

After upgrades are completed, Noventa said that the sites could generate enough heat for almost 5,000 homes per year and enough energy for 1,000.

5. Tourism to Scotland’s national parks is recovering to pre-pandemic levels, after the numbers of visitors to the Cairngorms rose by 18 per cent compared to 2019.

The park said it is the first year that tourist numbers have recovered enough since the pandemic to exceed the 2019 baseline figures.

On average, visitor numbers for the full 2023 year were up by 4 per cent compared with pre-Covid.

Tourism to the Cairngorms National Park contributed about £419 million to the local economy last year, with around two million annual visitors. The increase is partly down to more visitors over the winter.

“It is really encouraging to see the significant growth in visitors in 2023 who came to the National Park in the quieter months,” said Gavin Miles, director of planning and place at the park.

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