A couple of observations, based on my own experiences, on topics which still seem to be 'hot' on this thread despite being debated 'ad nauseum'.
I've flown 40+ FlyBe sectors this year, for both leisure and business, all but two involving the IOM. The only significant delay I've had was 3 hours coming back from MAN when they cancelled the penultimate flight of the day and sent the aircraft to BHD and back, before it took me home on the last flight. Otherwise, every other flight has been more or less on time. Indeed, the last three inbound sectors I've flown from LGW, LTN and BHX have all arrived over 20 minutes early (yes I know the schedules are generous). I haven't just been lucky - checking the airport website shows that this is a general trend over the last few months.
Flybe are trying to raise their profile and have started to put their name and presumably some money into the local community, but perhaps they need to be publishing and explaining these punctuality numbers more widely to try to shake off the legacy 'FlyMayBe' tag.
On the thorny question of fares, I've been to London and back over ten times this year. I've travelled via LGW, LTN and LCY and I've never paid over £100 for the round trip. Sometimes I buy singles and go to/from different airports. Often, the cost has been significantly under £100. I usually book around 6 or 7 weeks in advance, and look at different options or permutations of fares, before I press the 'confirm' button. In the early part of the year, I used VLM quite a bit, but they've lost their way completely, and I've been dependent on FlyBe, but my £100 benchmark is still achievable.
I know I'm quite lucky to be able to plan ahead and I do avoid half term, TT Week and other hot spots. I'm fortunate that I've never had an emergency where I've needed to buy a flight at really short notice, but I can't accept that the norm. to LPL is £200 or LGW is £300 and that FlyBe's adverts and lead-in prices are misleading - they are all out there, if you look and plan.
Despite the tricky economic situation, we have brand new aircraft to travel on, much of the time - not 20 year old 146's so I am one Manxie who does recognise and appreciate that Flybe are doing and pretty good job overall. Others will have bad experiences of fares, punctuality and other factors, and I sympathise, but I also want to redress the balance a little.
Overall, you'd struggle to pin point an earlier period where IOM enjoyed materially better service and frequencies on the core routes, a fares mix to suit most pockets and circumstances, within what seems to be a sustainable framework and model.
And as we say in the IOM, if you don't like it..........there's always (well when it's not too windy) a boat in the morning!