Originally Posted by
SWBKCB
Considering the size of the car park and that it also acts as the car park for the Stobart HQ offices, would probably cost more to collect than they'd make.
It's two separate car parks, one for Stobart HQ and one for the terminal.
I’m actually putting my hat in the ring for Firnas.
New start up that will be looking for incentives to help them start up. They have an emphasis of wanting to serve ‘unserved’ routes, will use the J41 so ideal for Carlisle and so on. They need to put their aircraft somewhere and can’t think of many other unserved UK domestic routes that would be an obvious fit for them?
Small correction, but Firnas have a Jetstream 31. I initially thought it might be Firnas, the Jetstream would be a perfect fit, and with them not having announced any plans yet, it made a bit of sense. But apparently they are determined to operate their own flights from elsewhere.
Stobart Air have been awarded funding to operate the flights, so they need to do so under their own name, but that doesn't stop them from outsourcing the actual flying. The smallest plane in the Stobart fleet is an ATR42, which is a big plane to fill from Carlisle. Outsourcing to a J31/J42 or Saab 340 makes sense. If not Firnas, perhaps Loganair or Eastern.
I had assumed that the Dublin link would be linked into the Aer Lingus franchise to allow interlining, if so presumably they would have an interest in what was being operated in their name also.
Interlining and transferring are two different things, however nothing has been announced for either. Although Stobart operare flights on behalf of Aer Lingus, this side of the business is entirely driven by Aer Lingus - they choose where to fly and take control of all marketing and ticket sales, and assume all risk for flying the route - Stobart get a fixed fee. I cant see Aer Lingus being interested in taking on the risk of serving Carlisle.
The flights will likely operate under the Stobart name. It's possible a deal may be done to interline with Aer Lingus, they certainly have an established relationship, and in future if the flights perform well Aer Lingus may choose to take on the route.