I have to say I have travelled with Travel City/XL airways quite a bit from either Scotland or Manchester and found them pretty reliable
Before Christmas, my auntie went to SFB with City Direct from MAN and on the return journey the plane took off from SFB and returned 5 hours into the flight. Next day the same happened except it was only in the air for 3 hours.
Finally, on the third day they were put on a MCO-LGW with VS and then BA upto MAN.
They can be reliable but when it goes wrong they don't have many options but to wait for the plane to repair.
Could anybody explain why they sent her MCO-LGW-MAN instead of just MCO-MAN? Cheers.