Originally Posted by
virginblue
I am really puzzled by this. Stobart has a fully operational "back office" for the EI-branded flights, so unless the BE-branded lfights were operated in some sort of joint company and not just, as it appeared all the time, under a common brand, stopping operations at a time when almost the whole domestic market is up for grabs and others are quickly moving in to benefit from this, is a somewhat strange business move. Particularly as most routes had little to do with BE's core network and should easily survive on a stand-alone basis.
Stobart Air is not an airline as such but a provider of wet-leased aircraft. They take zero risk with route profitability and simply charge a profitable fee to operate an aircraft on a route for an airline. If there were 1 or 49 passengers aboard the aircraft, Stobart got the same wet lease fee from Flybe. Stobart Air will redeploy the fleet to other airline customers looking for wet lease cover. I think the agreement with Eastern was different; Eastern paid a royalty to Flybe to operate under their brand name.