Originally Posted by
IOMX
For those that think EasyJet is the answer for the Isle of Man worth reflecting on a few facts
1) This is an airline who is not intending flying to/from the island until at least 1st September. To quote specifically a spoke person for EasyJet said ' Due to travel restrictions in place for flights to the Isle of Man our flying programme to and from the island continues to be under review'. This is interesting especially when Loganair are prepared to travel to and from Liverpool and Manchester in the current circumstances.
2) EasyJet were very happy to charge islanders up to £700 for a return flight to Liverpool when there was restricted availability following the collapse of Flybe.
3) Flight timings to and from London are scheduled to make use of additional pilot hours after or before more lucrative flights so the Isle of Man scheduled timings are very poor.
Whilst believe they have some role to play to connect people ( likely mostly holidaymakers) who want to travel on to Europe they are by no means the answer for the island now or in the future. An alternative plan to provide greater connectivity for the island and in particular London is urgently needed.
1) Would Loganair have stepped in without the patient transfer contract?
2) The booking engine saw a sudden spike in demand once Flybe collapsed, computer booking systems all over the world use similar price algorithms to automatically adjust prices on demand.
3) I think the planes are not always Gatwick based so do a leg before hand. You think they should dedicate a 189 seat plane for a 7AM arrival and use one of those prized rush hour slots at Gatwick? Perhaps IOM Gov should approach EZY to overnight in IOM, do an early LGW and back then perhaps BFS, LUT or BRS before the evening LGW, it would be good to get some local engineers doing overnight line maintenance on an Airbus and base some crew...........ain't gonna happen.
The Dash-8 was the right plane with the wrong operator. I don't know the answer and I doubt any airline would be totally interested at the moment with bigger problems around for them at the moment.