Trislander,
Or, they could announce a decision and say that thy have resolved NOT to order any A319s, or 737s.
The market in the Midlands is already competitive, especially on the sunshine routes. We have baby and MON moving in on BHX, and TOM at CVT, not to mention EZ, WW, and a small FR operation at EMA, with DSA also serving the northeast Mids.
I would not yet say that we are saturated here - there are still plenty of cities which could be served from the Midlands, saving us that painful journey down to London. BER, INV (at "reasonable" prices), ABZ / DND (ditto), NQY, OSL, HEL, LIS, BIO, and BUD would be markets where I would imagine there would be demand. Some of these are well within Flybe's capabilities using existing stock, but I doubt that those which aren't would support the use of a 737 / A319 anyway, except perhaps LIS.
I also don't see any logic in being a "me-too" player in the 150 seat market, just to be appealing for a possible takeover, especially as they would be adding an untested complication to their forecasts, against the proven track record they have in serving regional domestic markets, short hops to France, and a few routes to Spain from the smaller airports.
There must be hundreds of airports in Europe which are ripe to be opened up by an efficient turboprop operator, but which either don't have the runway length, or are not prepared to offer a sufficiently sweet deal, to attract the likes of FR.
Compared to the 150 seat operators, they can also either offer daily flights instead of the 3-4 per week, which is common with airlines such as WW, TOM etc. On higher volume routes, such as BHX to EDI, they can also outperform their rivals by offering more frequency, and therefore capturing more of the high yield business market.
If they must diversify their fleet (does anyone know the costs per seat mile of a 146 / RJ100, compared to a Q400?), wouldn't an efficient regional jet be the answer - again, not sure of the economics of something like the Embraer 190, but if they are good enough for Jet Blue, would they be good enough for BE?
Surely they would be much more attractive if they stuck to what they did best, especially as they have few real competitors at this level, and left the 150 seat dog fight to the other players.
PS - have just taken a look at
http://www.ruleof70to110.com, which gives an Embraer's sales pitch. The site quotes a range of 2,200 nm for the E190, which would certainly make all of the above viable, and even bring in the possibility of destinations like KEF, CAI, MOW and IST. Compared to the Fokker 100 (used by Eu Jet?), the Embraer 195 offers 53% lower maintenance costs, as well as some seemingly attractive costs per seat mile compared to other a/c, but I'm sure the bean counters could read between the lines here. The lack of the Q400 on their comparisons was notable - but then again, it is not a jet, so perhaps they see that as a different market?