Going way back a few posts......
Virgin Blue
I would say that having a stable airline with IOM-based crews (such as Flybe now) is far from the worst that the IOM could have at the moment.
Your point about insurance against the big player in the market going down is a fair point although that would have been the case with Manx Airlines then BACX in the past. In fact when the big player (BA) showed it wanted to run down its services the market became very fragmented and it all became a bit of a mess. The situation now seems to be as it was prior to BA buying out Manx/Bral; one main airline with some smaller niche routes being run by much smaller outfits.
The crews based on the Island always thought that the flights should originate from IOM (apart from it suiting domestic arrangements
). This was something BACON got very wrong. You aren't waiting for the first inbound flights (esp if the wx is poor - tropical paradise?) in order to get services flown ex-IOM.
the days of Flybe (Jersey) just having a token go at an approach and then poking off to BHD should be well and truly past.
Spanner
ps I don't work for Flybe in case you think so.