Flybe booking system has been updated and my instinct was spot on.
Now 3 return flights serving IOM Monday-Friday with 1 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. So indeed a reduction from 24 to 18 weekly flights.
Now unfortunately it does have to be asked... Passenger numbers at Liverpool for 2014?
Now being January I think we can rule out any significant growth this summer and most likely for the rest of the whole year, so let me summarise:
Compared to last summer, Wizz Air have cut back from about 8 to 5 weekly departures and Flybe from 24 to 18 weekly departures. Norwegian are also pulling out completely.
So far I make it a total of up to 35 weekly departures cut down to 23. If you like, almost a 35% reduction in the non FR and EZY traffic.
EasyJet look vey similar this year compared to last year.
Ryanair on the other hand have the biggest cuts. To my knowledge, Ryanair operated 154 departures a week in May 2013. For May 2014 that drops right down to 127 a week. I make that near as dammit a 17.5% cut.
Assuming EasyJet has 170 departures per week both last summer and this summer (which is being quite generous), that's a cut from 359 to 320 weekly departures, or just over 10%.
Now I know that's based on aircraft movements, but my guess would be somewhere within a 6 to 9% reduction in passenger numbers, for the summer months at least.
I would guess pretty much 4 million passengers on the dot or very slightly over for 2014. Lets hope that 2015 will not see further cuts or else it might not even make 4 million
