An interesting stand-off developing between the Ecojet team and the new CEO of Loganair who used to work with most of them either at Flybe or Specialist Aviation then!
Given the relative lack of discussion, I'm unsure if I'm the only one who doesn't get this whole Ecojet thing though. Apart from the obvious point that it's neither a "jet" nor "eco" in its current form - and won't be for quite some time to come - they appear to have a team with a higher credibility rating than most start-ups (although that's intended as an observation and not a compliment). But they are aiming to fly ATR72s in a market where getting aircraft deliveries and spares is proving hugely difficult for many long-established operators (Aurigny and Loganair for two obvious examples at present). Trying to recruit crews in a market where regional airlines are struggling to hang on to those they have (Eastern and Loganair for two more examples).
In terms of routes, Edinburgh-Southampton has been the only public statement. If both Edinburgh and Southampton are minded to give out commercial deals for a second operator to join that route, it would surely be to easyJet and not Ecojet? Even if Ecojet does get started on the route, it would surely pave the way with the airports to offer deals to easyJet to replicate its presence on GLA-SOU with a daily EDI-SOU, at which point the rationale of their presence disappears.
It just feels like they are trying to defy gravity with the obvious crewing and aircraft issues affecting other airlines so clearly, and the route plan is based on no reaction to their entry to the market. If you're aiming to shake things up, you need to look at how other operators will react to that "shake" and factor that into your plans.
So for now, although I think these people have a team capable of putting an aircraft into the air and becoming an airline, I'm less than convinced that they can turn that airline into a business. I'll wait for someone to drop by and tell me I've got it all wrong.....