I agree. Apart from the argument that Eastern have been loyal to Teesside over the years (and of course the more operators at the airport the better), Loganair are surely a better bet than Eastern. Eastern have also suffered from a tendency to charge big prices on the ABZ route which has alienated many regular users who face a long train journey instead.
Loganair...
- has better marketing (OK subjective but based on the emails and social media I see as a recent customer of both airlines)
- has a better digital operation (have Eastern even heard of mobile apps?)
- has bigger fleet (Loganair have 36 aircraft, Eastern have 13)
- is a bigger company (Loganair had sales of £120m in the year to Mar 19, v Eastern's £38m)
- flies more passengers (Loganiar flew 948k pax in 2019 v 298k for Eastern)
- is more profitable (Loganair made money pre-covid, Eastern was a regular loss maker and the bulk of the money they made in the year to Mar 2020 was due to one off items)
- has existing relationships with world leading international airlines that make codeshares and interlining possible - I do not believe Eastern even has one
However we should recognise what Eastern did to put the airport on the map last year as the 5 route launch was the biggest thing to happen to Teesside in years. The covid timing has been a disaster for them but maybe their medium term ambitions were not the same as the mayors?