LCY and Eastern
On Tuesday at lunchtime there were two Eastern Saabs parked at Ronaldsway; neither painted in BA colours. On Wednesday there were also two, however this time one was the BA painted aircraft sitting on stand 3 with an engineer's van next to it. Similar time Thursday again two,and again the BA aircraft was parked on stand 3; with the Eastern liveried aircraft ready to operate the 1300 LCY departure.
This morning the LCY departure is delayed for some 3 hours (hopefully it will make it to LCY before the curfew) and as the wx seems ok it must be a tech problem. LCY shows everything moving there (and reports the IOM flight as "on time"!) To be fair flights during the week have been operating on time.
There's another thread running on Eastern referring to unhappiness among it's people and also to frequent tech problems with aircraft. The number of Eastern aircraft covering for the BA painted Saab suggests it isn't the most reliable airframe in the fleet. Indeed it even went tach for it's inaugural flight.
Now I want this route to be successful - I flew each week of the first month of operations on the E170. I've also flown on the Saab, although I confess it was a disappointment after enjoying the E170 experience. However LCY is expensive - departing pax are charged some £40 against LGW's £8 or so - and this will be reflected in the ticket price. Currently it seems there is no charge from Ronaldsway, which presumably is a first year sweetener.
But I'm wondering whether Saab reliability is or will become an big issue, as we saw with RE's ageing ATRs, and will deter regular travellers (who notice these things) from using it.
Which would be a shame.