Isle of Man-2

[lfc84]

Flybe has announced that the airline will no longer have a base on the Isle of Man as part of a new programme with Stobart Air taking over operations.

In a statement released by the company today they say that the final Heathrow service will cease to operate on Friday 26 October this year - something Energy FM News reported in May.

It states that flights between Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester will continue as normal, with two Stobart Air models replacing the Flybe Q400s.

They say that the existing contract with the Isle of Man Department of Health and Social Care will remain in place, supporting customers seeking to access health services in the UK.

New Stobart Air operations are planned to enter service on 5 January neat year, followed by a second ATR on 29 March 2020, when Stobart Air will assume full Isle of Man operations and continue to operate these routes.

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

Didn't Stobart operate two based ATR72s until very recently? Pretty sure I flew IOM-MAN on one of the two on first wave recently...

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by Skipness One Foxtrot

Didn't Stobart operate two based ATR72s until very recently? Pretty sure I flew IOM-MAN on one of the two on first wave recently...

Yes they did and the previous management took it inhouse. It will be interesting to see if Stobart take over other bases or former bases.

[Tonyq]

Originally Posted by PDXCWL45

Yes they did and the previous management took it inhouse. It will be interesting to see if Stobart take over other bases or former bases.

This looks like further muddled, confused, short-term decision making by the new regime, as far as IOM is concerned. A media release quoted by Manx Radio apparently says that the Q400’s are “unsuited” to IOM operations which is clearly a lie. The IOM routes are very similar to 75% of the BE network, in terms of distance, frequency and traffic, and BE operated them very happily, for 10 years before Stobart came on the scene.

In any event I thought that Stobart had injected their flying assets into the new Connect set up, so FlyBe, Stobart, Connect should all be one big happy family, before long.

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by Tonyq

This looks like further muddled, confused, short-term decision making by the new regime, as far as IOM is concerned. A media release quoted by Manx Radio apparently says that the Q400’s are “unsuited” to IOM operations which is clearly a lie. The IOM routes are very similar to 75% of the BE network, in terms of distance, frequency and traffic, and BE operated them very happily, for 10 years before Stobart came on the scene.

In any event I thought that Stobart had injected their flying assets into the new Connect set up, so FlyBe, Stobart, Connect should all be one big happy family, before long.

Depends what the new Flybe management want. It could be they want to free up the Q400s for other routes out of say Heathrow? Or other bases?
I don't know the costs but maybe the ATR is more profitable on routes from IOM?

[fjencl]

If the base is closing, does that mean that the 2 stobart aircraft which will be operating the routes will be nightstop aircraft from another base,
Or does it mean that Stobart will open a base at IOM albeit that Stobart and Flybe are effectively the same company (Connect).
Its well confusing...........

[virginblue]

Where are the (two?) ATR72s needed for future IOM-operations based at the moment? They need to be replaced there as well unless the routes on which they are currently used will be chopped.

[aurigny72]

Maybe the 2 ATRs will come from SEN if they are planning to chop those routes but who knows?

[Tagron]

The Flybe booking website currently shows that the SEN ATR routes will be discontinued in February/March. On that basis it looks like the IoM services will use the SEN aircraft. Whether those SEN services (GRQ ,RNS, NQY, CFR) will be resumed in some other way I have no idea.

I think that an earlier statement from about a year ago suggested those SEN ATR operations would only run to February 2020.

[Tonyq]

Originally Posted by Tagron

The Flybe booking website currently shows that the SEN ATR routes will be discontinued in February/March. On that basis it looks like the IoM services will use the SEN aircraft. Whether those SEN services (GRQ ,RNS, NQY, CFR) will be resumed in some other way I have no idea.

I think that an earlier statement from about a year ago suggested those SEN ATR operations would only run to February 2020.

Its reported elsewhere that they will come from the previous SAS operation, but who knows!

[Tonyq]

Originally Posted by PDXCWL45

Depends what the new Flybe management want. It could be they want to free up the Q400s for other routes out of say Heathrow? Or other bases?
I don't know the costs but maybe the ATR is more profitable on routes from IOM?

You may be right about the Q400, but to say they are “unsuited” is just a bare-faced lie. If the ATR economics are better, then say they make the network “more sustainable”.

Of course, one thing no one has mentioned, is that Stobart management are now (partly) calling the shots, and the FlyBe management, who threw them off the routes six months ago are now............well who knows where they are!

[Alteagod]

100% agree I think Stobart are clearly in the driving seat

[jijpc]

I also have a suspicion that they had difficulty crewing the base with local staff. I flew BHX-IOM earlier this summer and a number of the passengers were Flybe cabin crew, in full uniform, presumably positioning to the island to operate flights.

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by jijpc

I also have a suspicion that they had difficulty crewing the base with local staff. I flew BHX-IOM earlier this summer and a number of the passengers were Flybe cabin crew, in full uniform, presumably positioning to the island to operate flights.

They have a general shortage of crew anyway at Cardiff they are having to use Southampton based crew.

[virginblue]

I should have asked differently, so here we go: When IOM switched from Stobart to Flybe in March this year, where did the based ATR72s move to? They have only been deployed elsewhere now for something like half a year and I wonder if they are the examples that will return to IOM.

[desk_bound]

Originally Posted by virginblue

I should have asked differently, so here we go: When IOM switched from Stobart to Flybe in March this year, where did the based ATR72s move to? They have only been deployed elsewhere now for something like half a year and I wonder if they are the examples that will return to IOM.

The two Stobart 72-500's were at end of lease and returned, Connect has picked up the 5(?) 72-600's that Flybe had on the Nordic contract, I believe that these are going on the Stobart AOC and this will produce the equipment for IOM

[Tagron]

My suggestion that the IoM ATRs would be sourced from the SEN operation is now looking less likely. The Flybe SEN timetable has changed again, now showing GRQ, CFR and NQY continuing to the end of the winter period, instead of ending prematurely though RNS apparently only runs to March 1.. Perhaps this is another error that will be resolved soon !

[desk_bound]

Originally Posted by Tagron

My suggestion that the IoM ATRs would be sourced from the SEN operation is now looking less likely. The Flybe SEN timetable has changed again, now showing GRQ, CFR and NQY continuing to the end of the winter period, instead of ending prematurely though RNS apparently only runs to March 1.. Perhaps this is another error that will be resolved soon !

RNS is I believe closing for one month in the spring for major runway work to bring it up to cat II standard

[116d]

Originally Posted by desk_bound

The two Stobart 72-500's were at end of lease and returned, Connect has picked up the 5(?) 72-600's that Flybe had on the Nordic contract, I believe that these are going on the Stobart AOC and this will produce the equipment for IOM

Will these be painted in neutral colours, in Flybe colours or even the first to go into a Virgin scheme with whatever name they come up with?

[116d]

Originally Posted by Tonyq

You may be right about the Q400, but to say they are “unsuited” is just a bare-faced lie. If the ATR economics are better, then say they make the network “more sustainable”.

Of course, one thing no one has mentioned, is that Stobart management are now (partly) calling the shots, and the FlyBe management, who threw them off the routes six months ago are now............well who knows where they are!

I wouldn't have thought there's much in it economics-wise between Q400's and ATR 72's, though from a passenger perspective having been on both I prefer the ATR 72's and if it's -600's the bigger overhead luggage bins will be an improvement over the -212A/500's from EI-REL/M's time based at IOM. One negative of having aircraft based at IOM from the last time is if one of them goes tech or if there are delays it impacts the rest of the day's programme, whereas at the moment they can swap aircraft at BHX or MAN.

I do wonder whether this is one area where the new regime are flexing their muscles on the business and who's driving the change?