Originally Posted by
virginblue
Does a seven-strong fleet of E75 dispersed all over England really make sense from an operational perspective, given that they are pretty close to the Q400 capacity-wise and, due to their relatively small size, most probably too uneconomical on most leisure routes where their legs could be useful on paper?
I can only see BHX and MAN housing the remaining 7 E175's of which 3 will be used on the CDG if the arrangement with Air France continues and as they are more inter-linked *(Virgin-Delta-Skyteam) there is a chance it will.
The others will be used on BHX & MAN MXP
if these routes remain and perhaps BHX-STR TXL and again if these routes remain although these are often Dash 8's as well these days.
This brings me on to six-sixty's excellent post and the only minor point I have to add is that BHX-BHD is only a 175 on a Saturday and it is to get the aircraft there to fly BHD-SZG or INN (can't remember which one), the more perplexing use of the 175's is the regular MAN-NQY, MAN-SOU and MAN-BHD. The jets at BHX in the main do operate routes with decent business take-up or are a little longer than the norm or the extra seats are filled such as MXP, STR, TXL, LYS, AMS etc. If you see one in the week on domestic it is usually covering for the Dash which gain Six Sixty is spot on.
Most at BHX seem to be thinking that MXP, STR, TXL, HAM, HAJ, LYS, DUS might not be around in 12 months and also expecting changes on CDG and AMS.
Pete