This may sound like pie in the sky thinking but I wonder whether there may be some relation to the Stobart holding company I raised a few weeks ago - where the consensus seemed to be that they're making moves to take over an existing operator. Perhaps an agreement where each party acquires the most relevant "halves" of said firm to operate as two independent airlines, though one of the two would need a new AOC in order to do so. I'd heard something similar surrounding Flybe 2 and Loganair a few years ago but ended up dismissing it given the former's woes at the time.