If the Government is serious about the introduction of more PSO’s to support regional communities then it may be a financially sensible move to bring back a small part of Flybe to fly those routes being considered. I do think that getting this country moving again after this crisis will be critical to get the economy back on track.
The value of the NQY PSO route alone was circa £2.8m over 4yrs, more than Connect Airways paid for all of Flybe back in January of last year.
The UK uses very few PSO’s when compared to other European nations and there are no doubt some routes for which rail or road are not viable alternatives for business (to long/over water).
I’m not suggesting the Government simply bring back Flybe, that would be crazy, but a Government owned, lower cost, slimmed down version may just make sense if they are simply going to spend the same amount on PSO funding anyway.
The problem is that ‘Government owned’ and ‘slimmed down, lower cost’ rarely go hand in hand.