The slots for BE’s NQY Service are former remedy slots. This extract from the original IAG / bmi remedy explains why they were allocated them:
"Where a New Air Services Provider has operated Competitive Air Service on two or more Identified City Pairs using Slots in accordance with these Commitments for at least two (2) consecutive IATA seasons, it shall be entitled to apply for any Slots still available… to operate Frequencies on any European Short-haul City Pair…”
So once Flybe had done one summer and one winter on LHR-ABZ and -EDI, it had access to the remaining remedy slots to use for European routes of there choosing - and it chose Newquay.
The slots were held by IAG, which had to give up for them