Will be interesting to see whether bmiR put up a fight on MAN, their main route out of ABZ. They must have been dreading the day when competition returned on the route, having had it all to itself for quite a while now. Would like to think that the route is important & big enough to support both operators, but my experience is that the majority of routes domestically out of ABZ cannot support any more than one operator on the route. Perhaps only Heathrow of the domestics can support more than one operator & even then I sometimes wonder when e145s are used on some rotations!
Flybe were touted for the Manchester route for a while now. Was always surprised T3 never thought about trying it.