Originally Posted by
virginblue
The challenge for SOU really is what will happen if one day Flybe grows out of its Q400 operations - most airlines over the decades move from smaller to larger aircraft..Should BE one day move to 120-150 seaters, something needs to be done to keep SO competitive. I can think of quite a few airports on the continent with 1.200m'ish runways that have lost airline service as a result of the disappearance of 30-50 seater turboprops.Airports with 1.500-1.700m runways will face similar problems once airlines move away from 80-100 seat aircraft.
In theory you are right, although it didn’t exactly work out with the embrears? I seem to remember the idea was for the 175 to replace most if not all of the q400s. It brought the company to its knees. Something tells me Loganair are going down a similar path. Can’t see anyone ever challenging their q400 operations, anything bigger then they cannot match the economy of scale of the low cost lot.