Let us suppose that Flybe decide to open a new summer seasonal route form Manchester operating maybe 2x per week
Flybe already operate routes from Birmingham and Southampton (but not Manchester) to Avignon, Biarritz and Brest, all 3 of which are in areas of France with plenty of appeal to a large number of British tourists.
Why should Manchester-Ostend be more profitable than, for example, Manchester-Brest ? A route like Manchester-Brest would presumably have the operational and commercial advantages that come with a join-the-dots approach to a network rather than opening an extra spoke.
Remember also that at the start of 2014, Flybe was close to bankruptcy - it may have pulled through the worst of the storm but right now it needs to build cash reserves and demonstrate stability to investors.
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 4th Jun 2016 at 13:37.