I also think what is being missed here is what a PSO actually means. There are various flavours that can be used but in this case it's not a case of someone from CODA turning up at the bmi offices each year with a large bag of cash for them to play with. The PSO is an underwrite i.e. the airline is expected to generate certain revenues that COULD get underpinned by the PSO monies up to a certain amount. This dream of a large bag of cash being given to an airline to help with a startup is just ridiculous as that's just not how it works. As for £89 return fares being "steep". You clearly have no notion of airline costs if that's your opinion.