Official UK procurement notice
Provision of Air Services
Authority: Argyll and Bute Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionArgyll and Bute Council intends to procure a four-year contract for the provision of scheduled passenger air services between Oban, Coll, Colonsay and Tiree. The contract is expected to commence on 16 September 2027 and will be supported by a fixed annual subsidy. The successful operator will be responsible for the design, operation and marketing of the service and associated reporting requirements.
CPV: Scheduled air transport services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Argyll and Bute Council is providing advance notice of its intention to procure a…Planned
Argyll and Bute Council is providing advance notice of its intention to procure a contract for the operation of scheduled passenger air services between Oban and the islands of Coll, Colonsay and Tiree. The contract is expected to commence on 16 September 2027 and continue for a period of four years.
The service is supported through a fixed annual subsidy and forms an essential transport link for island communities, providing access to healthcare, education, employment, business, public services and tourism opportunities.
The Council intends to adopt an output-based approach and encourages operators to develop innovative proposals. Tenderers will be free to determine, within the available subsidy, their proposed aircraft type, service timetable, seasonal variations, fare structure, marketing strategy and route development initiatives.
The successful operator will be responsible for the design, operation, promotion and management of the air services, including scholar travel provision, passenger booking arrangements, performance monitoring and reporting. The Council will provide support including a fixed subsidy, waiver of PSO landing and passenger fees at Council-operated airports, office accommodation at Oban Airport and access to airport facilities required for operation of the services.
The Council anticipates publishing a contract notice and tender documentation at a later date and is issuing this Prior Information Notice to raise market awareness and encourage engagement from suitably qualified air service operators.
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Argyll and Bute Council buys Scheduled air transport services (CPV 6041), and who usually turns up
Argyll and Bute Council’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Scheduled air transport services (CPV 6041) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Here, local means registered in Scotland.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Scotland.
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How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards were announced within 35 days of the bid deadline.
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How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
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How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid100% / 56%
2–30% / 28%
4–60% / 6%
7+0% / 9%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate21% / 38%
Within ±2%50% / 15%
Above estimate29% / 46%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
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What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1Argyll and Bute Council is providing advance notice of its intention to procure a…CPV 6041Published estimate£2.0m
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How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 78 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid56%
2–328%
4–66%
7+9%
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Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
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Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Craig of Campbeltown LtdEarlier contract | Provision of School Transport Services - Mid Argyllnotice published Sept 2025 | 1507P | £1.1m | Matched as the earlier contract |
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
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Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
What this replaces i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
44% title match.
A past supplier may not bid again.
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Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
44% title match.
A past supplier may not bid again.
The prior contract this notice most likely re-tenders · matched by title and category (44% title match), the holder is not guaranteed to re-bid
Provision of School Transport Services - Mid Argyll — held by Craig of Campbeltown Ltd and Craig of Campbeltown Ltd (+1 more); no contract end date published.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record · publisher note attached- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 2 Sept 2026, 12:23 BST
- Last source update
- 2 Sept 2026, 12:23 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-083024- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f050Find a Tender
Publisher note: This Prior Information Notice (PIN) is issued for information and market awareness purposes. Tenderers maybe required to detail: - How they will operate the service - What aircraft they will use - What timetable they will provide - What fares they will charge - How much subsidy they require - How they will market and grow the service - How they will maintain resilience and reliability - How they will report performance to the Council - How scholar travel requirements will be met The Contract has fixed subsidy of around GBP512,207 per annum, equating to an estimated total subsidy of GBP2,048,828 over the four-year Contract Period. The successful Operator shall deliver the Services within the available subsidy. NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Public Contracts Scotland Web Site at https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=841479. (SC Ref:841479)
How it was run
Official noticeTender documents are also served through a separate tool: http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk ↗
- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
2 Sept 2026 → 30 Nov 2026 · 2 dates- Notice published48 days ago2 Sept 2026, 12:23 BST
- Today20 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 40 days30 Nov 2026
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.