Aberdeen is losing a vital air link to another London airport.
Services between the Granite City and London City Airport will end next month.
Eastern Airways operates the route on behalf of Flybe under a franchise deal but the service, which has operated via Newcastle since January, is deemed to be no longer “sustainable” and will stop on April 7.
It follows the decision by easyJet to axe its Aberdeen-London Gatwick service earlier this year, leaving the Granite City with London area air links using Heathrow and the airports in Luton and Southend.
Flybe had stepped in to secure the air link between Aberdeen and London City Airport in 2014 following a campaign by The Press and Journal.
The then prime minister, David Cameron, had previously promised to help secure the route after British Airways said it was walking away from it.
Flybe and Eastern teamed up in a franchise partnership after a longstanding arrangement between Flybe and Loganair ended in late 2017.
Bringing the curtain down on the Aberdeen-London City service yesterday, Roger Hage, general manager of commercial and operations with Eastern Airways, said it would “regrettably” stop on April 7.
Mr Hage added: “We had adjusted the flying programme in January to operate the Aberdeen-London City route via Newcastle to also give a direct Newcastle-London City service on the aircraft in a bid to improve the route’s revenue performance.
“Disappointingly for all parties, the required fare yields to make such a service sustainable have not been achieved.”
Affected passengers with bookings on or beyond April 7 will be offered a full refund.
Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce chief executive Russell Borthwick said: “This is a very dispiriting move by the operator, further reducing the choice for business travellers in the north-east journeying to London and onward to other destinations.”
Aberdeen International Airport managing director Steve Szalay said air passenger duty was “most definitely a contributing factor” to route cancellations and needed to be “taken off the table sooner rather than later”.
Aberdeen Donside MSP Mark McDonald MSP said: “Many said this would happen when Eastern inexplicably introduced a Newcastle stop to the City route and so it has come to pass.”
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP Andrew Bowie said: “Aberdeen International Airport will be working hard to find other operators to take on this route and I hope they are successful.”