Thanks for the answers TartinTom and 01475. I guess in the specific case of Edinburgh they wouldn't want to penalise small aircraft operators because of the impact on flights to Orkney, Shetland, Hebrides etc. but I definitely see what you mean as a general point. Now you mention it, I now recall the reason that BE pulled out of Gatwick was exactly what you mentioned. :ok:

They also limit peak periods with slots, so could refuse to give slots for when the punters wanted to actually fly.

Most airports charge by max takeoff weight when it comes to landings fee's LGW and a few others have a minimum charge which makes anything under about 75 seats/30 tons ridiculously expensive.

G-CGWV currently on the ground at MAN, been here since Sunday evening.

Think it came in on a football charter and probably nothing to do on bank holiday so no news

Are Backbone Aviation not operating the Eastern airways flights anymore ????

Not sure if this has been mentioned, apparently Eastern are paying Loganair a lot of money to be their handling agents at KOI and LSI.

Of course, this came from the crew, and 'a lot of money' is ... vague.

One thing is certain, Flybe are going to realise very quickly that this is a disastrous partnership. As has been said before, Eastern don't even have sufficient crew to cover their own routes, let alone additional Flybe routes.

Eastern has it's own handlers at LSI - don't know about KOI though

I think they're already there. The J41 paint is already nearing completion in purple and the Saab 2000 that went into paint at EMA today was planned to go purple. In a last minute change of heart orders have been given for it to be painted all white - hardly a commitment to the new deal! There are no signs of the T3 flights moving off Eastern's systems to Flybe's with only two months to go. Every flight next week on ABZ-LSI is still selling at the lead-in fare and it's like that for months ahead so looks like bookings are low to nonexistant as well on the "flagship" route for the new partnership.

There are no encouraging signs at all here - looks like it is about to get as messy as many predicted and if Eastern are involved in taking any risk on this then I'd not be surprised if they were to back away from the whole thing in a real hurry.

A Swiss S.2000 has arrived at NCL tonight using an Eastern positioning flight number. There's been a J.41 parked up for a couple of days with what looks like engine problems(?), so don't know if this short term cover or something more long term.

Its longer term till the end of October, replacing the Jetstream that would normally operate the 4641/4032/4095/4648 schedules.

What happened to the crj200 that was supposed to be operating (backbone aviation)

This is all leading to a very messy operation. RL will carry on losing money and probably hand 100% to Bristows.

That'll be HB-IYI, Saab 2000 of Darwin Airline in Etihad Regional Colours

The first J41 in the Flybe colours is pictured here.

https://twitter.com/flybe/status/903565493554032640


Edit: And another slightly better picture:
http://skyliner-aviation.de/viewphot...v2&picid=10024

Good luck to them. To stay a viable business for as long as they have under the circumstances is quite an achievement as far as I am concerned. I would have thought BE is a more valuable code share than BA is.

Jethro's reports a J32 arrived from AIS Airlines, Flightrider

J 32
 

PH-FCI J32 arrivedat MME on 31/8 and operated the aberdeen route on 1/9

Another company who is struggling to keep Captains.

funny enough I think that Airframe is one of the old eastern ones.

Were we supposed to be able to book Eastern flights on the BE website from 1/9, or did I misremember the date?