BA Connect will axe IOM from the winter timetable
If all the airlines that started services from LTN over the past 2-3 years had continued, it seems likely that LTN would now be seeing 10.5M to 11M annual passengers: for example, Happag Lloyd Express, Volare, Helvetic, Styrian Spirit, Air Turquois and SweFly. One of the main factors that seems to blight LTN in its pursuit of 'greatness' must be that unlike Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Southampton and even to an extent, Stansted, it offers no interlining and so every schedule service passenger using the Airport is either terminating/originating or has to make their own connection arrangements. Given the proportion of interlining traffic at these other airports (with the notable exception of Stansted) it's hardly surprising that the routes involved cannot generate the load factors necessary to support the operating costs.
The continued increase in the price of oil and therefore, fuel must also be putting many 'low-cost' routes under pressure because the break-even load factors on many must be nearing 90% which means that their profitability is shrinking by the day. MoL's statement that he RYR won't levy a fuel surcharge until a barrel of oil costs $100 belies the fact that fares have crept up anyway. And if oil ever does reach this figure it'll become an academic discussion because the effect on the World economy and so business and leisure air travel will see route contraction almost as breath-taking as recent expansion, probably followed by airline bankruptcies that'll make the loss of SABENA and Swissair, and the current situation in the US look like a children's tea party.
