And as for the IOM routes flybe are not interested they just want the slots
I can have ' some belife ' in that. When I was strutting my stuff at flybe many moons ago, flybe had quite an operation in IOM, ground staff increased there to. Then suddenly IOM routes seemed to disappear from many bases.
Flybe did many things when I was there, Open this base but we will close that one, oh now we will close the one we just opened and so on and so.
Not saying that is going to happen with the ' Merger ' as i am sure flybe have matured and learnt from those days.
P.S I do hope something will be sorted for the ground staff, best off luck to them.