What's to say the subsidies are route specific and not just "base 2 aircraft here for 10 years." Gay friendly is right to a degree but I am sure there are reasons behind closing so many BHX routes down. It isn't cheap necessarily setting them up so any decision to close a route would be thought through.
This is different though. There was no 10 year commercial plan with BHX as there appears to be with CWL.
If there is a better deal for the jets elsewhere the only route that would probably go is FAO as the rest could be replaced much easier by the Dash 8. And regarding Southend I think there needs to be abit more educating on how franchise partners like Stobartair work.
Stobartair pay to use Flybe's revenue streams and in return they operate in Flybe colours and no doubt give some financial return back. Decisions on where Stobartair fly are solely their own as is the financial risk. So Mikkie4 is not factually accurate