Originally Posted by
Mr A Tis
I think some publicity wouldn't be amiss on the MAN-SOU. The 3 x daily Flybe Dash 8s had good loads.
Domestic travel is increasing & the train from Manchester to Southhampton is the best part of 4 hours & first class fares are eye watering.
I've made a few train trips and they are pretty full.
The Eastern fares are almost half the Cross Country First fares & I'm sure people would prefer 45 minutes in a tube as opposed to 4 hours on train.
Trouble is in my area very few people are aware of Eastern, it's not really a know name in the Manchester area. However, it does need to be double daily ( which it is, only 2 days week)
Totally agree with this. Of all the airlines that have replaced Flybe on routes from SOU, Eastern are probably the least well known and recognisable. Apart from their twitter account I haven't seen much if any marketing for their new routes.
Although you could argue that the Flybe flights had good loads before Covid and many of the business travellers and people feeding onto long haul ex MAN aren't travelling right now.