mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,
Im not sure how excel are selling the flight to the Tour Ops but if they are selling them as xla flights then i bet the tour ops are thinking they will have an xla a/c, not some leased md83 to viking which is flying for xla but rebranded as UKJet.
Excel must have some confidence in the MD80 operator otherwise they gonna have alot of unhappy Tour Ops, i know i would be if I was a tour op, but then again, commercial are just money hungry buggers, i dont blame them but xla cant afford to p**s tour ops off as they wont come back and xla's repuation will soon spread round as a bad one.
But then again, Scandic went on for quite a few years, look at what !!!!e they had every year yet they still managed to get the tour ops to take on allocations of seats.
Aviation for you eh, sometimes i do wonder.
Cheers