Ello' new here, but not new to the Island!
From what I can work out, ATC at Ronaldsway do want to get the "knackered old 146 with it's Hurray Henry's" out first, but only cause it makes a nicer "presentation" to Manchester ATC because it's so much faster and climbs better than the turboprops. There have been numerous occasions where the 146 has been given silly speed limits stream arrivals and to stop it overtaking some of those turboprops on the way back....quite frustrating for Henry &co as it's plainly obvious that with a good 100kts or so on the TPs they'd eat it alive if given the chance.
Anyway, only one of them is a Henry you know! The rest are certainly not, and all but one would rather be flying something else, preferably younger than the cabin crew!
ATC have to my old eyes been doing a sterling job considering the chaos. They do try to get the 146 a parking position in front of the terminal, rather than bussing, but that's mainly because it needs external steps, has loads of freight as well as usually more pax than one bus can take. Logical really. During the day it's strictly first come-first served for all stands, and with this constraint the 146 crews mostly take the option if offered of waiting for a stand when it's busy around 4;30pm as the experience tells them the delay for the next rotation caused by parking facing the freight building will be more! The loaders cetainly thank them for it too!
Just one Luton left today and then we'll all see how the new schedule works out! Wish them well, because the only reason the last flights made it in nearly on time was because of the slack in the LTN rotation that allowed them to make up time. Not at LGW I suspect!