Originally Posted by
22/04
Everyone here talking about VS -but they are only putting up 30% of the money- Stobart and the investment company are the remainder.
They actually aren't committing any money - just their brand.
Stobart realise that RE is too small for economy of scale and too dependent on the EI contract. This drove the planned merger with cityJet. flyBe is laden with debt, has had more strategies and rebranding than hot dinners. Stobart have experience in leasing and franchise operations, but don't have a strong airline brand. They nearly have no interest in developing one either, or they would have done so at SEN. Slapping a Virgin sticker on flyBe allows them to make the argument that "this time is different". I share the skepticism that 20 flights a day into LHR (most of them in the afternoon/evenings) isn't great for feeding VS. MAN is a bit better, but the current VS network is focussed on O&D and is limited in terms of destinations for a transatlantic hub.
It's probably not ideal, but having access to better sales and marketing teams seems to have worked reasonably well for RE & EI. The RE operations at Cork, for example, feed nothing, but have grown significantly since the planes were painted green.