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Regional carrier Eastern Airways - and the airport it once owned - are playing a crucial role in helping keep Britain’s supermarkets stocked and lights on, despite the vast majority of flights now being cancelled.

The northern Lincolnshire teams have seen scheduled operations all but shut down, with just a solitary return flight from Humberside to Aberdeen now in place, carrying between six and a dozen key workers between energy hubs.

Eastern is however serving an ever increasing number of one-off ‘missions’ to move key workers in differing sectors across the continent.

It has seen an Embraer jet bring in agricultural workers from Constanta, east Romania, with vessel crew changes in A Coruña, northern Spain, also catered for. Those two flights alone will have put more than 100 passengers through Humberside.

At Aberdeen, the airline’s second home, it has handled charters to Alesund, Kristiansund, Floro, Bergen and Trondheim in Norway, a series into Rotterdam, Holland, and a trip to Munich, Germany.

Roger Hage, general manager for commercial and operations at Kirmington-based Eastern, said: “While travel restrictions are resulting in 95 per cent of scheduled services being stopped, we are serving an ever increasing number of specialist rescue or key-worker flights to manoeuvre those in the energy, farming or shipping sectors including here at Humberside, our airline’s home airport.

“Anything we can do to assist governments, companies and people in sectors such as those with the positive engagement of the Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority is positive to keep Britain as a well connected island nation continuing generating energy and farming. We are also protecting logistics to ensure essential goods including medicines and food reach us all, which is essential throughout and beyond this period of extraordinary circumstances.”

Around 85 per cent of the team is furloughed, with some work has been done in partnership with fellow Humberside operator Weston Aviation.