Loganair announces new sponsorship of Northern Pride

The UK’s largest regional airline has thrown its support behind one of the UK’s most popular Pride events.

In celebration of Pride Month and its Flying’s For All Equality, Diversity and Inclusion initiative, Loganair has been announced as the official airline partner of Northern Pride, one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the country.

The airline will support the event’s health and wellbeing zones with volunteer staff, which have become one of the festival’s main attractions in recent years. Thanks to Loganair’s sponsorship, these zones will be spread across both days of the festival for the first time in 2023.

The move comes after Loganair proudly showcased its support for the LGBTQIA+ community with the official unveiling of the airline’s first-ever Pride Jet earlier today. With the classic Pride colours wrapped around the centre of the fuselage of an Embraer 145, the jet will fly across Loganair’s route network, visibly underscoring the airline’s commitment to creating an inclusive, safe and secure working environment for all its employees.

Last year Loganair launched its Flying’s For All company-wide Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy, in an effort to help the airline create a safe and secure working environment in which all staff, including those from minority backgrounds, can thrive and excel.

The airline has made a significant investment in rolling out its Flying’s For All Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training course which will reach every single member of staff, regardless of their role over the coming year.

Loganair chief executive, Jonathan Hinkles, said: “Newcastle is one of our most popular destinations and as we enter our biggest ever summer for the region, we’re thrilled to be announced as Northern Pride’s official airline partner.

“We’re firmly pinning our colours to the mast – or the fuselage in this case – as an airline that is not only open to all but as one that is a vocal advocate for equality.

“Since we launched Flying’s for All, we’ve been blown away by the enthusiasm of our team to find ways to show support to each other. We’ve established that our teams already viewed Loganair as an inclusive place to work, but there’s an understanding of the need to imbed that in our services every day and at every level.”

First formed in 2007, Northern Pride is an officially registered charity event which attracts people from all over the country. The festival now includes a March through Newcastle city with entertainment, various LGBTQIA+ safe zones, information stalls, and market stalls across the Town Moor, Newcastle plus an array of satellite events on the build-up to the festival which now attracts over 70,000 people.

Loganair’s backing of Northern Pride comes as the airline anticipates its busiest-ever summer in the region where this year Loganair has based a second aircraft and expects to carry a record number of customers across its network of routes within the UK and to Norway from its home base in the North East.

Ste Dunn, director of Northern Pride said: “It’s been fantastic learning over the past few months the support Loganair provide its LGBTQIA+ colleagues and how they collectively champion the mission of “flying for all”.

“Discovering the support particularly given to James Bushe, the first pilot living with HIV to be given a full licence without restrictions has been inspiring and supports our mission to elevate the voices in our community that are still at risk of discrimination.

“Pride Jet is a fantastic addition to Loganair’s fleet, and whilst visibility is vitally important for our community right now, you don’t get more visible than flying the flag thousands of feet in the air.”

Leon McQuaid, director of aviation development said: “Loganair is an innovative airline and industry leader. With its ‘Flying’s For All’ strategy it is clear that the airline is leading the way in promoting diversity across the business and, alongside the Airport, prides itself on providing a fantastic, welcoming service to all of its passengers.

“We’re delighted that the airline is sponsoring Northern Pride and we look forward to welcoming those passengers flying into the region for the event next month.”