The summer season begins in around six weeks.
There would appear to be no public facing plans to change the business to feed Virgin long haul in time for this to happen before the summer peak. The new owners are leaving this *very* late, if they had any real intention of operating flybe as a meaningful feeder for VS. There would be plans for seamless T3/T2 transfers at MAN ready to go to fill those long haul departures. Perhaps behind the scenes it's all ready to go? If it's not, then there's no serious appetite and they're going through the motions in name only.