A charter flight to Kirkwall is a different job from a charter into the Hebrides. Kirkwall has a proper runway, a scheduled network and two ferry routes across the Pentland Firth. The arrival is rarely the problem. The next leg is: the North Isles, where the strips are short, the scheduled aircraft allows 15 kilograms a head, and the work often sits across water from the bed.
This guide is for coordinators planning crew travel to Orkney. It sets out what Kirkwall Airport can take, what the inter-island Islanders can and cannot do for contractors, how the ferries behave, and which projects are putting crews on the ground. Where we could not verify something, we say so.
Can you charter a flight into Kirkwall Airport?
Yes. Kirkwall (EGPA) is run by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited, and its main runway, 09/27, is roughly 1,430 metres of asphalt, long enough for every type in our comparison of crew charter aircraft, from an Islander to a King Air 350. You need an Air Operator Certificate holder to fly you, and the airport needs prior permission.
The figures differ slightly by source. Wikipedia gives 1,430 metres for 09/27 and 677 metres for the cross runway 14/32. SkyBrary shows 1,428 metres and 680 metres. Treat all of them as approximate and have the operator confirm against the UK AIP. Pilot reports describe an ILS and RNP approaches, which matters for winter cloud, but we have not checked the current procedures ourselves.
On hours, we could not find an official HIAL page. The airfield.directory listing gives local times of 07:15 to 20:00 Monday to Friday, 07:15 to 17:45 on Saturday and 09:00 to 20:00 on Sunday, with operations outside those hours on request. The same listing says prior permission is required and gives 180 minutes' notice for summer operations. It also shows customs and immigration on request, and fuel (Avgas and Jet A1) on request. These are third-party figures, so ask HIAL on its Kirkwall Airport pages before you build a rota around them.
Three practical points for a crew change:
- Airport to town. Kirkwall Airport sits about 2.5 nautical miles south-east of Kirkwall, so a pre-booked minibus is a short run to the harbour and hotels.
- Out of hours. A 06:00 start on site means a late-evening arrival the day before. Out-of-hours opening is a request, not a right.
- Weights. Give the operator the bag and tool weights with the request, not after the quote.
Which scheduled flights serve Kirkwall?
Loganair is the scheduled operator, flying to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Sumburgh, plus the six North Isles. Aberdeen is the shortest hop at about 50 minutes, according to flight-time aggregators. Kirkwall handled 157,051 passengers in 2025, per Wikipedia.
The network is thinner than it looks, and it is being trimmed. Loganair reduced Inverness to Kirkwall and Sumburgh flights from mid-July 2026, saying it would restore the full winter timetable if support became available. A related headline on the same site reports that funding was committed to reinstate the Inverness frequency, but we could not read the detail, so check the live timetable. Separately, Loganair is leaving Dundee on 23 October 2026, which ends the Dundee to Kirkwall link.
For a rota, the issue is seats rather than speed. A crew of eight does not fit on a handful of scheduled flights a day without a risk of splitting up. That is the case for a charter: one aircraft, one arrival time, everyone's bags together. The break-even arithmetic is set out in the aircraft comparison.
Can contractors charter the Orkney inter-island Islander?
Not the contract aircraft as such, which matters for anyone pricing Orkney inter-island flights for contractors. The two Islanders Loganair bases at Kirkwall fly the council's lifeline timetable, and each carries seven passengers. For tools and crew bound for the North Isles, the options are a separate charter, scheduled seats for people, and a boat for kit.
Orkney Islands Council awarded Loganair the inter-island contract for 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2029. It links Kirkwall with Eday, North Ronaldsay, Papa Westray, Sanday, Stronsay and Westray, and carried 21,995 passengers in 2023/24. Loganair's inter-isles page sets the baggage allowance at 15 kilograms in total, with excess carried only if the aircraft has space and weight. Groups of more than eight use a separate form. The Westray to Papa Westray sector is usually about 90 seconds.
Loganair's site has a "Charter a Flight" link, but we found no inter-isles charter terms. Whether a whole-aircraft booking is possible, with a Kirkwall-based Islander released from the timetable, is a question for Loganair, and the answer may depend on the day. Do not assume it.
If a different operator flies you, the island airfields are the constraint. The council owns and maintains six North Isles airfields, and prior permission is needed at all of them. Its rules, as read in October 2026:
- Requests go in at least 24 hours ahead, in working hours, and are answered Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm.
- The aircraft owner or operator must hold a valid indemnity before approval.
- Nobody may land or take off within 15 minutes of a scheduled Islander.
- Eday and Westray were closed to general aviation traffic because of work in progress. That notice may have changed, so ask.
Runway lengths are short. Wikipedia gives the longest runway at both North Ronaldsay and Sanday as 527 metres. That rules out a PC-12 or King Air and leaves an Islander or, with the operator's sign-off, a Twin Otter. The operator, not you, decides whether a strip is acceptable, and the licensing section of the aircraft comparison explains why.
An illustrative example, not a quote. Five people with tools fly from Aberdeen to Kirkwall in a single Islander, about an hour each way. At the £1,700 to £2,000 per flight hour working estimate in our other guide, two flight hours is £3,400 to £4,000 before positioning, landing fees, handling and VAT. Changing the facts changes the answer, so send the operator the real weights.
How reliable are the ferries to and around Orkney?
Reliable enough to plan on most days, not reliable enough to be the only plan in winter. We did not find a published reliability percentage for the Orkney routes that is comparable to the CalMac tables in our disruption playbook, so we will not invent one.
NorthLink, Scrabster to Stromness. The crossing takes 1 hour 30 minutes. NorthLink's 2026 guide shows three sailings each way on the peak timetable and two on weekend and off-peak ones. The adult single fare is £22.10 to £26.00 and a car under 6 metres is £72 to £79, depending on the season band.
NorthLink, Aberdeen to Kirkwall. The 17:00 sailing from Aberdeen arrives at Hatston, Kirkwall, at 23:00, and the southbound call leaves at 23:45 for Aberdeen at 07:00. Not every sailing calls at Kirkwall, and in winter fewer do. Adult singles run from £27.50 to £42.00 and two-berth outer cabins from £99 to £153, per NorthLink's 2026 fares. It suits a van and a night's sleep, but it costs the working day on arrival.
Pentland Ferries, Gills Bay to St Margaret's Hope. Pentland Ferries describes the crossing as just over an hour. Its own site showed cancelled sailings on 14 October 2026. The two Firth operators share a stretch of water and a weather system, so they are not independent backups. The playbook explains why.
Orkney Ferries to the North Isles. The council-run boats serve Eday, Sanday, Stronsay, Westray and the rest. High winds regularly cancel sailings, and in January 2025 the council warned of a high level of disruption with many Friday sailings cancelled. For a crew, one cancelled boat is also a cancelled shift change.
A fleet replacement is under way. The council's task force reported in January 2026 that three 60-metre Phase 1 vessels, with an option for a fourth, were going to tender, with contracts expected in June or July 2026 and a programme cost of £270m to £400m. We could not confirm that a yard has been awarded the work. Do not plan around new boats for the next few years.
Rotation options compared
The right choice depends on crew size, kit and whether you are going to the Mainland or the North Isles. Prices are published fares or labelled market estimates, not Sulu quotes.
| Option | Best for | Time | Indicative cost | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loganair scheduled to Kirkwall | 1 to 3 people, light kit | About 50 min from Aberdeen | Fare varies; check Loganair | Few seats, trimmed Inverness frequency |
| NorthLink Aberdeen to Kirkwall | Crews with a van, overnight | About 6 hours north, 7 hours 15 south | Adult £27.50 to £42; cabin from £99 | Not every sailing calls at Kirkwall; late arrival |
| NorthLink Scrabster to Stromness | Drive-on crews from Inverness side | 1 hour 30 | Adult £22.10 to £26.00; car £72 to £79 | Pentland Firth swell |
| Pentland Ferries | Drive-on crews, Gills Bay | Just over 1 hour | Check Pentland's tariff | Shares weather with NorthLink |
| Charter to Kirkwall | 4 to 16 people, fixed arrival time | Roughly an hour from Aberdeen | Islander £1,700 to £2,000 per flight hour (working estimate) | Positioning, weather, PPR |
| Charter to a North Isle | Small team and tools on a short strip | Minutes from Kirkwall | Ask for minimum billing | Strip closures, PPR, 15-minute rule |
| Scheduled Islander to a North Isle | 1 to 2 people, no tools | Minutes | Loganair fare | 15 kg limit, seven seats |
What work is sending crews to Orkney?
The largest job is the SSEN grid link, and the rest is smaller or paused. Status matters more than headlines here.
- Orkney Link (SSEN Transmission). A 220kV connection from a new Finstown substation, via about 14 kilometres of underground cable to Warebeth, west of Stromness, then 53 kilometres of subsea cable to Dounreay West in Caithness. SSEN's one-year update from November 2025 reports landfall drilling at Warebeth finished, more than half the Orkney cable ducts installed and about 375,000 people-hours worked across both substation sites in 12 months. Reported energisation is 2028. Offshore cable installation is a later phase, and we did not verify its dates.
- Flotta oil terminal. The NSTA page, updated in January 2026, lists Neo Next as owner and the terminal as operating. It describes the Flotta Hydrogen Hub as on hold until market conditions allow. Do not plan crews for a hydrogen build.
- EMEC. The European Marine Energy Centre runs the Billia Croo wave site and the Fall of Warness tidal site off Eday, and is exploring a floating wind test site west of Orkney. Visits are periodic and often marine, which means boats and weather windows.
- Onshore wind. The council-backed Quanterness wind farm near Kirkwall was approved at six turbines and 28.8MW, with construction expected in 2027. The Hoy project was paused. Both statuses come from 2025 reporting, so check them. If it proceeds, Orkney wind farm crew transport will mean Kirkwall beds and short road runs, not flights.
- Ferry works. The replacement programme includes upgrades to linkspan controls at Eday, Sanday, Stronsay and Westray in Phase 2, per the January 2026 task force note.
For the wider grid picture, our guide to Highland grid projects and crew accommodation covers the mainland side.
Beds and ground transport in Kirkwall and Stromness
Kirkwall suits crews working near the airport, Hatston ferry terminal or the North Isles boats. Stromness suits the Warebeth cable landfall and the Scrabster ferry. Finstown sits between them, close to the substation.
Beds are tight in summer. A 2024 report cited a lack of hotel and B&B availability in the busy season. In August 2026 the council announced funding to convert a vacated care home in Kirkwall into accommodation for up to 39 agency staff, citing agency accommodation costs of about £750,000 a year. That is a sign of how scarce rooms are for visiting workers.
SSEN said in March 2024 that it was considering a temporary camp for up to 230 workers at Finstown. We could not confirm its current size or whether it has room for subcontractors, so ask the principal contractor before assuming a bed.
Block-book early, get the whole season if you can, and book minibuses against the actual flight or sailing, not a guess.
What we do on an Orkney rotation
This is the work we do on crew travel: check which strip and which Islander is actually available, which boat is running, and where twelve people sleep on a Thursday. We use the best intelligence available to narrow the field fast, then people who make the calls to get it done, and a second route ready before the first one fails.