Nigel
No offence to anyone intended and I apologise for the tone if it came across like that. I too hope the flights are back next year
It's a good piece of work from those involved. I'm just trying to put the thing into perspective and maybe offering a bit of a reality check. I hope that's one of the positive things about this forum rather than city bashing (since I don't live in or near a city and have nothing to bash or bash with
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But you, yourself note that these flights were jointly announced by the Secretary of State for Culture (note: not Transport).
Charter flights from all corners of the world hit Britain's regional airports from time to time. It really is a non sequitur to assume that they are a fore-runner of a scheduled service.
The key difference between charter and scheduled is in who takes the risk.
In the case of a charter flight, the person who organizes the charter is almost always taking the risks although they will try to lay that risk off the best they can.
With a scheduled service, the airline takes the risk, albeit with sweeteners from airports to the extent they are allowed to offer them. There is a huge difference between the two.
CZ, the airline won't give a hoot whether they carry 2 passengers or a full load on these flights; they get paid for the charters come what may.
But good luck to those involved.