Loganair, which is sponsoring this year’s Northern Pride, has launched the UK’s first-ever Pride Jet to show its support for the LGBTQ+ community.
Wrapped in the classic Pride colours, the 49-seat Embraer 145 will fly across Loganair’s route network from June 15 underscoring what the airline calls its “commitment to creating an inclusive, safe and secure working environment for all its employees”.
Its launch follows the introduction of the airline’s Flying’s For All initiative. Established last year, Flying’s For All has three main objectives: to recognise and support LGBTQ+ members of the Loganair community; to encourage wider opportunities for female members of the team throughout the airline; and to support employees’ mental health through a broad range of initiatives.
The Pride Jet is part of Loganair’s LGBTQ+ campaign and will be flying throughout its network – including to a number of communities where Pride events have only taken place for the very first time in the last couple of years, in contrast to the long-established nature of such events elsewhere in the UK.
The airline will also be sponsoring this year’s Northern Pride in Newcastle (22-23 July), 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.
Loganair is Northern Pride’s official airline partner and is supporting their health and wellbeing zones with volunteer staff, which have become one of the festival’s main attractions. Thanks to Loganair’s sponsorship, these health and wellbeing zones will be spread across both days of the festival for the first time this year.
The airline has, to date, invested more than £300,000 in rolling out its Flying’s for All Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training course, which the airline hopes will reach every single member of staff, regardless of their role over the coming year.
Jonathan Hinkles, Loganair Chief Executive, said: “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 – and there’s a keen 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 LGBTQ+ safe zones, information stalls, and market stalls across the Town Moor, Newcastle plus an array of satellite events on the buildup to the festival which now attracts over 70,000 people.
Ste Dunn, Director of Northern Pride said: “It’s been fantastic learning over the past few months the support Loganair provide its LGBTQ+ 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.”
For more info on Northern Pride, CLICK HERE
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