Originally Posted by
Skipness One Foxtrot
What ofher airline? Run the list.
Loganair are still digesting BMI Regional (this is the Stobart / flybe likely end game) so they’re maxed out.
Eastern not likely, ambition no longer there.
easyJet or Ryanair will cherry pick for volume and frequency needed by business can swivel. Ask IOM
Blue Islands? Nope
Aurigny? Bigger nope.
er.....
That’s it. All the lil guys are gone, a changing market and the killer of APD saw to that.
Many of the routes and frequencies will go unserved, unless Stobart really do step in and do a Loganair/BMI Regional.....
If there is a profitable market for the routes that Flybe currently serves if they become vacant, then clearly another airline will take their place as simply a smart business decision. Whether this is U2, FR, T3, LC, is down to them. Otherwise, a new airline or subsidiary can be set up, free to take on the existing Flybe infrastructure and staff, to cherry pick the profitable and survivable routes. That's how the free market works - if there's profits to be made, they will come.
If there's not a profitable market for the remainder of the routes, then a serious discussion on PSO needs to occur, in which case
key and vital connecting routes can be subsidized. Think: NQY-LGW (which I believe NQY-LON is subsidized already),
not LCY-LUX or LHR-DUS.
I will not however accept that the government should give a "commercial loan" (where no other commercial bank would) to throw good money after bad in subsidizing a very wealthy consortium of owners under the pretense of "If Flybe don't exist, who will fill the market?!". I don't care whether this is £1, £100m, or £500m - the government has no place in giving tax money to charlatan vulture funds, regardless of if it's dressed up in a pretty box masquerading to be a "loan".