Niknak,
Yes, that is what I have heard too.
With regards to the royal mail, I suppose that depends on what aircraft they want operating on the skynet routes. Were they happy with the ones operated by Gill? I guess that operating an ATR is a lot cheaper than say a 737 and with the royal mail still leaking money, I would say that is a big factor......
The ATR can be containerised, that is why Fedex will be operating them.