In January, Eastern's load factors on IOM-BHX and IOM-NCL were around 27% and 25%. That's about 8 pax on each flight. Now they may be 'doing rather well' elsewhere, but these look like death throes numbers to me.
Anyway, for my sins, I am flying with them later this month - my employers choice rather than having an overnight stay. Even so, I'm not sure how many people will continue to want to pay upto £350 to go to BHX and back................ and I notice that on my booking confirmation they are promoting themselves as a 'No refunds airline' - in fact even if you've paid £200+ for a ticket, you can't make any changes at all. I can't see Manx business people putting up with that for too long, in the current climate.
Personally, I'd rather take our chances with a fourth Q400 at Ronaldsway, sensible and realistic fares and my FlyBe points..............give it another 12 months.
