What is worrying though is that FlyBe seem to have lost the Manx public's trust somehow.
A couple of weeks back a letter appeared in the local press from a traveller who had discovered the hard way that the travel insurance he was pressed to take when booking through the FlyBe website didn't cover loss caused by unintentionally missing departure when flying within the UK. Most do. My annual policy does. Missed departure or missed connections are probably the number one reason for islanders buying insurance for flights to or from the UK. Bad publicity for FlyBe.
There is often letters complaining about fares. FlyBe trumpet their fares with the "from only..." intro. People complain because they seldom get that fare and even when they do they get hit for all the extras. Yet those complaining do not seem to realise that fares have significantly reduced for the majority since the arrival of FlyBe. More bad publicity, oft unwarranted. (Except for the use of the hard to get Electron card to justify adding those unavoidable, for almost all, of us service fees and card charges, of course!)
Then there are those returning from afar who have sensibly left a lengthy connection time between their flight into the UK and their flight back to the island. Faced with a lengthy wait landside they seek to travel earlier. FlyBe will rebook them onto an earlier flight for a fee and the uplift from their original fare to that now available. More letters from those who chose to pay peanuts but expect a FlyBe to ignore its standard T&Cs.
Now we see Joe Public believing that FlyBe are inconveniencing them by cancelling flights with low pax loads. As has been said above this is untrue. But the belief persists.
Now the Isle of Man is a small community, but FlyBe needs to do something to address these misconceptions. What exactly, I don't know. But certainly some concession for those wanting to travel earlier on the same day might help.