The bosses of troubled regional airline Loganair have flown to the Western Isles for talks with the island council.

Loganair has faced criticism in recent months over the punctuality and safety of its flights and has pledged to improve the situation.

Operations director Maurice Boyle and engineering director Barry Stone met council representatives in Stornoway on Monday to discuss Loganair's progress.

The airline launched a scheme called Project Optima in summer 2015, which it said would be a "complete review of the company’s operation".

A Comhairle spokesman said: "We very much welcomed the opportunity to meet with senior representatives from the airline in what was an open and frank discussion of the challenges facing them.

"We were given a very clear and honest explanation as to why they think their performance in terms of reliability and punctuality has dropped in the last several months and, perhaps more importantly, what the airline is doing as part of a structured programme of improvements to recover from this."

Cllr John Mackay, chair of the Comhairle’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said: "We do now have greater assurances after our meeting that the airline has a better appreciation of the concerns of the community and that they are taking the need for significant improvement as a key priority going forward.

"In addition to addressing issues associated with reliability and punctuality, we raised our concerns associated with the high cost of airfares and with the need for improving communications with customers when disruption occurs”.

“We are encouraged that the airline is seeking to re-establish what was previously a generally very positive and productive working relationship with the Comhairle and look forward to similar meetings on a more regular basis with the airline in the future”.

The British Airline Pilots Association made a series of claims relating to the safety of Loganair's aircraft last year, including allegations some were "unserviceable" and planes had "defects that clearly affect flight safety".

Within days, two Loganair aircraft bound for Scottish airports were forced to make emergency landings and a third was found to have a cracked propeller moments before take-off.

The company recently announced a £15m investment programme, which includes £4m for the purchase of two new planes and a £6m investment in a new facility in Glasgow to improve the speed repairs can be made to its fleet.

Loganair operates on 31 routes across the UK, including lifeline routes to the Highlands and Islands. The airline recently reported that 77% of its flights depart within 15 minutes of their scheduled time - above the UK average.