Stobart will have a plan......a company of that size wont't make such an investment without one. It is much easier to buy an airline than start one from scratch.
There might not be significant cross over between Stobart and Arann but I honestly believe that Arann could be a viable business as a standalone. Stobart have a huge marketing presence in the UK and Ireland. Arann and Aer Lingus are useless at marketing in the UK. I would say that most UK people are oblivious to their operations (unless from London/Manc/Edin). People automatically think Ryanair when they need to travel to Ireland. As a regular commuter on EIR mainly from MME, BLK and MAN the local population at MME and BLK don't/didn't know they could fly locally to Dub. During the 1 year they flew to MME, I only ever saw 1 advertisement and I would consider myself their target audience. That advertisement was in the arrivals hall in MME.....which meant that there was about a 50% chance you had just arrived on the service they were advertising. Stobart have a huge following in the UK and Ireland.
Where it would tie in with the Stobart ops would be the introduction of freighters. I assume because they have a couple of airports already they are already flying stuff through a third party airlines? I am pretty positive that they fly freight out of Carlisle. You add a couple of freighters to the Arann fleet then there is a good area of business to target...clients of jet2 freight like Royal Mail. If Stobart freight wanted to really branch into Europe hard then an air service would be of great benefit. Who knows, the big plan could even be something as mad as to get into a TNT/DHL style operation however I doubt that.
They could also go into charters - they have many corporate connections they could really diversify into anything they want and get away with it!
I think the investment of Stobart in SEN will prove golden to them.......it won't be instant but over the next 5-10 years it will establish itself. Carlisle airport perhaps isnt in such a good place. As much as I hate NCL, it is very easily accessible from most of the north via road and rail.
I belong to a consortium that was for a little while in discussion with acquiring Air Southwest when they went belly up. I know its a few years ago but I am sure there was talk of Stobart being interested in them so there has to be some kind of plan to acquire an airline - that hasn't just happened overnight.
Alot may depend on if FR take over EI and where that would leave the franchise agreement? Anyone have an idea on that? I would hate to lose EIR!
Anyway I am currently sat in MAN waiting for the ORK bird to arrive nearly 3 hours late....Last nights was cancelled.....Stobart have an uphill battle on their hands if they don't want to invest in something that will damage their reputation. No sign of the free vouchers as per....Menzies are very good at hiding!