Originally Posted by
Reversethrustset
I'm not sure people are getting it. CWL is not a profitable base for Flybe even with government funding, which on the face of it isn't a massive amount. The main reason for the closure is a combination of poor returns and the ejets. Flybe, or Connect, or whatever you want to call them nowadays clearly want shot of all ejets, I've seen the operating costs, they are staggering, so with the ejets gone that means routes out of CWL that realistically can't be flown anymore are FCO, FAO, VRN, VCE, TXL, MUC and MXP. That leaves JER, DUB, CDG, EDI, GLA, ORK and BHD (maybe I've missed the odd one). These routes mean they can operate them out of base and it'll be far cheaper because to have a crew base on two aircraft would cost in the region of £200k per crew in base and you'd need to run a 2 aircraft base with at least 5.5 crews per airframe, do the maths. Why spend that money when you can operate the routes from already established bases that'll cost you nothing extra. Also regarding the deal, there's no way on this earth Flybe did a deal with the airport that they couldn't easily get out of, how do I know this? Send me a pm and I'll tell you.
That injects a dose of realism!
However, I'd suggest that MXP and VRN are feasible - some years ago I did BHX-BGY in a Dash 8 and it wasn't that much of an ordeal, so MXP should be possible as well as TXL. Whether the routes you have mentioned make a profit or not I don't know, but I get the definite impression from your posting record that you know a deal more than you could possibly post on a public forum. I think that key to the new strategy is to operate the airline as a profitable enterprise for the group, not as a some sort of social service.