Akerosid,
Rumours of Flybe supposed financial difficulties are just that, rumours. I believe there to be no foundation in them at all for the following reasons.
1. Work has begun, at Exeter on the new Flybe maintenance hangar capable of housing up to 3 737/319 aircraft side by side. Such a move would not have been made if money was an issue.
2. A further 2 Q400 have been delivered in the last month from 8 to be delived this year. These would not have been released from Bombardier had they been worried about payments
3. The 'mixed' fleet should all but have dissappeared buy late summer. Each new Q400 delivered coincides with the handback of either a Q200/300. Flybe will then be in entirely the same positon as Easy, utilising a 2 aircraft fleet.
4. BE made a profit last year, although very small and is well on course to record another profit this year...only time will tell when figures are made available.
5. Finally, BE has just sold it's slot holding at LHR for a record £45million. Although I believe that some of this may have gone to the Walker Trust to repay the vast sums of investment required in recent years to keep the airline afloat, it will no doubt have added heathily to the airlines bottom line.
All told I think Flybe are in a very good posiion for this coming summer season. The SOU base is doing very well and load factor on the new Exeter routes should be fantastic if the first weeks bookings are anything to go by. However if they are too good then that may attract the likes of Easy to look more at the prospect of Exeter for route development. Personally I think this unlikely!