Originally Posted by
OzzyOzBorn
And Southend ... those Stobart ATR72's ran up too many EU261 liabilities due to over-ambitious scheduling; underlying demand looked healthy on the Manchester route at least.
Actually it was the E195s that were sick all the time. The ATRs were very reliable. Quite often if the ATR schedule went haywire it was because they’d been sent out on a 195 route.
Overall demand on SEN-MAN wasn’t strong enough. I used it quite a lot. For the first year or so loads were all over the place. Some laughably empty, some nearing full. Numbers were inflated through a reasonable number of connecting pax, either through MAN to other BE domestic/IOM/CI destinations, or through SEN particularly to Antwerp and Rennes as the times matched well in both directions.
In the end months they increased prices significantly which interestingly matched those of Loganair who went on to launch Scottish routes soon after. I had a theory they were trying to get Logan to take the route on. Anyway, during that time my loads were consistently around 20 and I think overall CAA stats mirrored that. SEN-MAN might work on a theoretical 20-seat outfit. It’s not a route that will work on a larger prop or jet, regardless of the state of the trains.