I agree. Lets get some perspective here.
Airlines are paying passengers to travel all the time!! How is it possible for Ryanair to offer fare promotions at £10 each way inclusive of all taxes when this only covers the APD charged on such tickets! In these cases FR is covering the cost of all other charges associated with that ticket price (wages/lease cost/airport,pax charges/fuel etc).
As with most airlines nowadays, Flybe make money on anciliary revenues. The chances are that NWI management are unable to confirm exactly how many passengers in the past 12mths have paid a ticket price that covered the operating cost of their trip. If Flybe want to pay £80 for a passenger to travel instead of getting £10 in revenue from them then that is a commercial decision and doesn't mean that those travellers are not classed as passengers!
Yes Flybe hightlights it environmental credentials (which are amongst the best) but at the end of the day they are running a business and the government will still get their fair share of the APD generated from all of these 'extra' passengers onboard these flights.
Who was it that said that 'no publicity is bad publicity'? Flybe and NWI airport have recieved more 'column inches' in the last couple days than they could ever have wished for, and I bet the equivalent press coverage would have cost more than £280k!
