Originally Posted by
virginblue
What exactly would be the point to get a franchise from a relatively unknown airline like bmi regional that operates 50 seat aircraft if you are operating ATR72s under the EI brand? Does the EI franchise not allow flights to the continent? And why would BE interested to franchise an airline that operates on a market that is attractive for BE itself? Franchises typically work differently: A larger airline franchises a smaller airline with a different fleet and market, e.g. BA franchises Sun Air.
I'd hazard a guess that the EI franchise is limited to flights to/from Ireland (and with a particular focus on flights feeding the hub at DUB); I don't think that EI have a particular interest in expanding their brand further afield and it may not be attractive for RE when contemplating a new network to face the marketing expense that comes with establishing "Aer Lingus" as the brand name in these new secondary markets.
I do agree with you though that bmi is not a particularly obvious franchisor. There may be a certain amount of residual brand equity for bmi in the London market but it would hardly translate to a turboprop operation from Southend to secondary Continental points (for which the principal market will be at the other ends of the routes.) I don't see any points in the existing bmi regional network which would likely be served from Southend, so there's no commonality there. Then again, if Aer Arann is willing to write a cheque for x% of revenue as a franchise fee, I could imagine bmi regional (or indeed flyBE) gritting their teeth and saying "to hell with the lack of strategic rationale, they want to do this, so why shouldn't we just take their money?"
Incidentally, you mention the (very relevant) example of BA and Sun-Air. Are we entirely sure that BA (!) would not contemplate signing a franchise deal to feed secondary European points into London on a purely point-to-point basis, if Stobart/RE are waving chequebooks around?