Is it positive that Flybe have at last woken up to MSE - Yes of course it is, but it's taken them 5 years to do so. I suspect it's a little sweetner to Infratil to keep them on the boil for another year or two, something positive for the
PR machine (remember when Infratil took over the aiport- "we will be profitable in 3 years" - and that time scale expired before the recession hit!) Niknak is right I doubt if there are any landing fees involved not if Flybe are charging 0 cost plus taxes.
They might get a few pax for weekend breaks (fewer still for mid week breaks) but anyone who thinks this is for the business flyer is in cloud cuckoo. If your happy with a late afternoon / early morning meeting in Edinburgh combined with a leisurely overnight stay sure why not...I don't run my business like that though..certainly not in this market.
Dont get me wrong I would love to see MSE get some sensible domestic and European routes going would save me the trouble of Gatwick, but remember this guys and gals EDI was Eujets most popular route. Double daily at realistic business travel times. It was a low cost model (lower than Flybe) and 75% of the traffic during the week were suits! They still only averaged 55% load.
Mr Flybe put a Q400 on with at least 2 rotations a day based at MSE and you have a winning route...otherwise forget it!