[QUOTE=RogueOne;10908273]
Originally Posted by
Gurnard
Seems like you might.
..and it's the perfect time to "plan" to start an airline. Clean slate, no debt, competitors struggling, domestic slots available everywhere as capacity reduced, potential to negotiate very favourable rates for handling, fuel, aircraft leasing, MRO support, willing, ready and trained crews. It'll take many many months to get all the pieces in place.
When the conditions to actually launch and this horrible pandemic are ending and behind us, Flybe Mk2 launches smaller, more focussed, with profitable routes at profitable bases... legacy constraints no longer holding it back.
I have some magic beans you might be interested in.
No new carrier starts off profitable from day one. Going in against Loganair on say MAN-xyz, the incumbent will have no choice but to fight tooth and nail for survival, hence no easy path to profitability. The notion that there's a large enough niche for a new flybe flying a large fleet of clapped out DHDs is just nonsense. Or maybe they'll order a new fleet of ATR72s with a side order of shiney A220s? They wil need to be very well capitalised to survive a couple of years of massive losses as a newbie flying on the brand of a famously bankrupt and frankly unloved carrier. The major problem of being unable to expand into the easyJet / Ryanair space and being up against stronger local brands like Loganair, Blue Islands and Aurigny remains. Any zombie Flybe had no USP to market.