Kavs8- ref to the link to the article on the success of Manx2 on new Cork Services to BHD etc
I personally will judge the success of this route based on the CAA stats and of course as you mention the load factors, however, after a few consecutive months of success. Why do I say this? The company that I work for were probably one of the biggest users of BHD ORK & ORK BHD with Aer Arann and since Manx2 have used the service alot less.
The reasons being that firstly on a Metroliner for the distance it is too cramped and anyone who is remotely uncomfortable flying doesnt like the confined space and this heightens their fears. Secondly, we did day trip to ORK on the metroliner out on 0750 and back up on on 1740 or should I say were meant to be on 1740 except that the flight was cancelled.
The aircraft arrived 1hr 15 mins late and when onboard (evening) pilot who was doing the pre departure announcement advised that they had technical problems with plane. (The same plane EC-GPS).
After sitting for almost 25mins watching the pilots trying to get the engines going (by this stage we all were most adament that we wanted to get off) we were told that we must go to the terminal and wait until it is sorted. When we got to the terminal we were advised that the flight was cancelled until the next morning. The next morning the LET410 did not arrive until10am which was due to leave at 0920. We missed our meeting in Belfast that was scheduled for 0930 that was a follow on from the previous days meetings in Cork. We had no change of clothes as we didnt expect to stay over night etc etc.
The running joke was in the office among the guys who flew the service before was that the 'spitfire' broke down and we missed our meeting.
We drive now. Sad for Manx2. But I think they are a good little company otherwise and do fill a niche, but they need to look at the aircraft being used. Let410 in my view alot more suitable than Metroliner, due to sense of space inside, although I feel that they need to aspire to having something like SF3 or Atr42 or even a Shorts 360 (one of my old favourites).
On a separate note, we boarded that morning at 0730 to fly to Cork and the same pilots arrived back in Cork that night at 7pm so if the aircraft had taken off it would have arrived BHD around 820 so the pilots would have been on duty since at least 7am, for those in the know is this acceptable (maybe they had most of the day off?) or perhaps they are working under Spain's rules on flying hours which I am unsure of.
EI-BUD