ISLE OF MAN

[fredtheanorak]

dont believe it

I hope you guys speckulating about Manx Regional are wide of beam cos if you stick FLIGHT SUPPORT into search and read the latest the conclusiun is that they wont' be arownd eyther. All airports need 2 decent handling agents and at BLK we don't even hav 1 -but it mite soon change

[EMX81L]

If you look at the basing plan on Flybe's Next Gen website, you will see the basing plan for the whole fleet come the end of march. We have been told we have a EMB145 and a 146-300 based on the Island.

Euromanx have got a few things planned

There will be some changes on the IOM this summer, watch this space!

Onto the handling contract. The contract has been signed, and has been for 6-8weeks. Hansol might well be right

[red17]

Don't be so sure its the end of Manx Regional. They to have a few things planned no doubt, as do eastern, and manx regional have the eastern contract.

[EMX81L]

Red17 - dont get me wrong i didn't say it was the end of Manx Regional. There are some good ppl who work for them indeed.

Will be a busy summer for everyone involved in the handling on the IOM which is excellent

[Powerjet1]

Surely a daily IOM-LTN might be possible by say Euromanx, following the demise of Aer Arann on the route. Past pax figs would tend to confirm this.

[treaclecat]

If this so called contract for handling has been signed all this time why has it not been made public knowledge yet and then it would put an end to all this rumour mongering on the island. FS managers are not normally so slow at making announcements and swanning around with big grins on their faces looking like the cat that has got the cream.

[fredtheanorak]

emx

You got the wrong end of the stik EMX81. My point was that airports' need 2 handlers. I certenly wasnt' about to get involved with the cr$p on the handling thred . Long live ManxRegional AND FS. IOM needs both

[EMX81L]

fredtheanorak - Yeah i see where you are comin from now, sorry about that

I dont think airport would want the airport to have one agent anyway, 2 at least is the way forward indeed

[manx crab]

Presumably Manx Regional have a contract with Bacon already and this will no doubt have a notice period which will have to be worked so things could not change overnight.

[fredtheanorak]

£126m

meenwhile it seams Mr French has £30m of pensiun money and £96m of BAs' cash burning a hole in his pockit so I suss he can affoard a bit of a compensatiun fund. I hope a wodge of this is going the way of MR & the guys in the hangars?

[part69]

Flight support have the contract and its up the the Manx Regional bosses to let there staff know. They should have let their staff know by now tho.

[skiddyiom]

I think you'll find that as soon as the "at risk" letter arrives, many, many people will be out of here like s**t off a shovel! Too much delay and not enough information. Me being one of them!!

If the hangars survives to August like Flybe think it will, it will be a miracle!! If it lasts to TT I would be surprised!

Treaclecat, if they know it's a done deal, why don't you know? Another company with inefficient, ineffectual management. Still, you could always go to FS and take a pay cut!

skiddy

[treaclecat]

skiddyiom
You know and I know that management only tell you what they want you to hear as for FS if they were paying the money they would be my choice if I lost a job that I really enjoy with a good team that work well together but FS dont pay the money sadly and I still have a job at the moment anyway - I hope

[manxramptramp]

FS are a dedicated bunch at IOM. Ok the pay may not be as much as most ground handlers, but they do the job to their best of their abilities and they are as keen as mustard. Keep it up FS!

[PAXboy]

Arrived on the 16:10 from LGW - because there is no LTN - and just wanted to say that the ground staff standing in the rain to guide pax around the temporary barriers were brilliant. Good humoured in the pouring rain and strong wind.

Also, a big for the fabbo landing in G-MABR. I do not know how much the wind was across the beam but, as we crossed the threshold, it was obvious that we were crabbing. After a descent that was pretty bumpy, we floated along and the touch down was sooooo smooth and I could not sense the moment that he straigtened out. I guess that some of it would have been in the last 20 vertical feet and some of it in the first 20 horizontal feet! What a delight - it was so beautifully done that it just made me smile.

[red17]

LCY Landing

The G-MABR landing sounds a little bit better than EMX's 3W810 last night. Was as bumpy as sh t!! Suprised they found the runway to be honest! LOL. Full marks to the flight attendant though for serving everyone and cleaning up even though it was a bit bumpy.

[PAXboy]

Today's edition (9th March) of Manx Independent carries the news of the the engineering base being closed on page 3.

It covers the whole BA/Flybe thing and reports how the announcement of the direct SOU link sounded good but when pax rang to book - the Flybe call centre did not know about the route and it was not on their system - despite having been publicy announced. So it sounds like SOP for British management.

The SOU route is said to be bookable from this weekend and start 25 March. They also mention, again, "New routes to EDI, GLA, NWI and EXE could follow". LTN is not mentioned and note could follow, so that sounds like marketing speak.

[virginblue]

IOM-SOU can already be booked from 33.49 GBP incl.

[treaclecat]

Ive just booked a IOM-LGW rtn flight on the FlyBe website and have saved myself about £40 on what I would have paid fot the same flights on the BA site. The only thing the punters on the IOM are not going to like is haveing to pay for pre booking a seat if they want one as they are so used to just getting what they want at no extra cost. I prepaid for my baggage to make a saving so watch out all you passengers that have given the staff at Manx Regional a hard time this last couple of weeks because BA baggage policies have changed and you have had to pay for extra bags with Flybe you will have to pay for every bag not just your excess ones. Things are certainly going to change over the next few weeks for everyone both staff and passengers alike. Good luck to MR and FS staff I think its going to be a bit of a bumpy ride for a while

[Ayline]

The Flybe take over is not all good news. I am flying from Guernsey to the Isle of Man in May. I could have flown direct from Guernsey with Blue Islands but, as I need to stop off in Manchester on the way, I needed to book a MAN-IOM return flight. I selected the flights on the BA website on the day of the take over. Rather than book and later find that the flight would be re-scheduled by Flybe, I waited until the flights were transferred to the Flybe website. The cost of the MAN-IOM return flight following the transfer to Flybe increased from £90 to £163.98 (and that's before paying for bags). Having looked at the alternatives with Flybe, which all seemed expensive, I have now booked a Euromanx flight for £88 return. Even that is expensive compared to the £68.30 return fare charged by Aurigny Air Serivces to fly from Guernsey to Manchester. Anyway I am pleased, I am flying GCI-IOM for £156 return which works out about £8 less than the Flybe MAN-IOM flight. I appreciate that flights increase in cost as the seats are sold but an £84 increase overnight seems excessive especially when most of the flights on other days were nearly as much. I came across single fares on the Flybe site as much as £91.44.