Originally Posted by
airsouthwest
It was probably cost effective due to lower taxes, cheaper labour etc. Flybe have also signed STS Birmingham to carry out some line and base maintenance. I do however, wonder what the CAA make of all of this as I know they don't exactly like too much third party work within airline ops following the Manx2 crash.
Its very common for smaller airlines to contract out even their line MX let alone MRO work. The airline (AOC) would still have a CAM, Quality etc but the actual stamp is often contracted out to a third party. STS and Medavia are both reputable organisations and both will have to hold UK CAA approvals rather than the historic EASA approvals, so the CAA arguably should now have much greater oversight. The Manx issue was to do with aircraft operators, IE manx2 had no AOC or even any quality / compliance / Safety of its own but positioned itself as having all. Each AOC that Manx2 used was then responsible for ensuring they complied etc.
The other thing to consider is whether Exeter Aerospace even wanted the business, they're not short of work, Logan, Eastern, Cityflyer, Emerald etc all going through there. ATR is the new Dash at EGTE. Its possible they turned the offer down and Flybe went looking elsewhere. Another benefit of the new business is making the best choice rather than sticking with what they knew as 'thats what we've always done'.