The Group recently acquired all of the interests of Invesco Asset Management Limited in its airline business, Stobart Air, and aircraft leasing business, Propius Holdings Limited ("Propius") and announced negotiations, which are progressing, to acquire the remaining 33% interest in Propius from Aer Lingus. Following these developments, the Board of Stobart has reassessed its strategy for the Aviation Division, in particular, its options for building new passenger routes at London Southend Airport ("LSA") and furthering the development of its Aer Lingus Regional franchise.
As a result, rather than proceed with a collaboration with CityJet, the Group has taken the decision to operate flights from LSA to up to 18 new destinations through Stobart Air's existing franchise arrangement with Flybe, under which it operates a number of routes into northern Europe. The new routes are expected to start in summer 2017 and to be available for sale by the end of this month. Negotiations with CityJet that could have resulted in a change in the ownership of Stobart Air have been terminated.
Reading the above stock market announcement it is clear to me that Stobart finds itself in the difficult position of having to run its own flights out of its own airport to try and get pax numbers up.
They need to decide if they are an airport operator or an aircraft operator. Trying to be both will not solve the underlying issue at the airport. They need to make the real estate attractive to airline customers, which so far they have failed to do.