CAMPAIGNERS fighting for lower airfares to and from the Scottish islands are to meet with senior airline management in Shetland next week.

Loganair contacted the Islanders Against Flybe & Loganair’s Excessive Prices group after its Facebook page attracted 14,000 supporters in a week.

The campaign has received the backing of MPs, MSPs, councillors and MEPs. The group will meet Loganair privately next Thursday to discuss its four main aims.

Scott Preston, the Shetland resident who started the fight, said the support it received had been incredible.

He said: “We are delighted that Loganair are willing to sit down and hear what we have to say.

"The support that we have received from people across the globe has been phenomenal. We’re very grateful to everyone who has contacted and supported the campaign.

“Despite Loganair having originally dismissed the campaign as ‘not more than a handful of islanders’, I believe we have shown clearly that there is a strong and still growing support for what we are hoping to achieve.

“Loganair will be given every chance to put forward their side of this issue, but they must come into next week’s meeting knowing that talking to us is just the start.

“We will continue to press for the changes that the isles desperately need for our lifeline air services. We will go into the meeting making the case for changes on the strongest possible terms.”

Preston added that there were good reasons for keeping the meeting private.

“When we first spoke to Loganair we suggested a private meeting to give both sides a fair chance to get their point across without an audience,” he said.

“Our entire campaign has been good-natured and we intend on continuing that as it has helped us to make a great deal of progress so far. Since reaching out to us, Loganair have been very fair and we want to reciprocate.

“We are also aware that Loganair may share some confidential commercial information at the meeting and having run a business in the past I am very sympathetic of the need for confidence.”

Campaigners have also been in touch with Derek Mackay, the minister for transport and the islands, to arrange a meeting with him.

Preston is hoping to hear from his office this week.

He added: “There are clear problems that go beyond Loganair’s responsibility on this matter. We want to sit down with Mr Mackay to help raise further awareness of this issue and to make the case for action at a governmental level.

“We set up a facility to allow our members to directly email Mr Mackay’s department to ensure that he is under no illusion about the level of feeling, and have been pleased by the number of members who have sent out supportive emails.

“Ultimately, we want to see Mr Mackay call a summit and put fixing this issue at the forefront of this and the next Scottish Government’s agenda.”

Following the private meeting the group will issue an update on its Facebook page on June 25.

Loganair flies the island routes for franchise holder Flybe and the campaigners want the company to acknowledge the strength of feeling about its fares. They are also seeking “clarity on finances” to give customers easy access to information about health and concessionary fares, as well as a policy to give discounted travel to people flying to and from the islands to attend the funeral of an immediate family member.

Soon after the Facebook page was launched several users gave examples of fares they had been forced to pay on various journeys.

One family of four adults was asked to pay £1,325 for travel to Edinburgh – despite having booked five months in advance. In another example, an NHS worker in Stornoway said the health service had to pay a return fare of £678 for her to accompany a patient to hospital in Glasgow.