It does make you wonder about the long term viability of regional flying in this country.... you would have thought Manchester - SOU would be able to sustain an airline where there is the potential for a huge time and cost saving over the train.
Eastern made an overall profit last year of 237k, on a turnover of 16m - a margin of 1.45%.
Surely there is a bigger margin to be made on a well run operation between Manchester - SOU? Flybe used to fly over 500k folk between the two cities pre Covid!