It was always going to be a struggle to make any sort of profit on a thin route while loses are easy to come by and Stobart/Flybe has 6 of them at SEN.
September might not be the Summer school holiday peak but it should still be a busy month and should be a lot busier than say November and February.
The big question is will the passenger figures slowly grow over the months to save the Southend operation from closure? As recent history has shown at Oxford and Cambridge that is often not the case so there must be a few worried people in the Stobart camp.
One must assume that when setting up the SEN base that the Airline went for what it thought were the best routes in terms of potential profits but if all 6 routes continue to perform badly will they try a different 6 routes. Can't see it some how.
Maybe I am being a little pessimistic as it is still early days to come to any sort of conclusion and most airlines seem to make losses in the winter.
Out of interest what was the load factor on the Waterford route which was closed down?
Makes you wonder though why the airline did not start services in the Spring to maximize earnings through the whole of the peak period to carry it over the winter period.
Lets all hope that the airline gets over its rocky start and that good growth will be just around the corner.
Last edited by LTNman; 19th Oct 2014 at 06:41.