Great news that you can now get from the NE to IoM without a shlep over to Liverpool or Heysham :) . It's been a big miss (well, for me anyway) since Citywing packed in.

how many of these routes will still be operating in 12 months time?

Well, it'll be a case of use it our lose it. Lets be honest, this is a step change for Eastern compared to their recent performance.

Wonder if the LCY will be like the recent NCL operation and tie in with the ABZ flights?

Cracking set of additions for the airport!

Hopefully the routes can be fully utilised and more sun routes added soon!

Awesome news.

Do we know what frequency each of the new routes will run and timings yet?

Coincidentally, flew through the airport today and it was great to see such a buzz!

Not seen details of timings but daily for DUB, BHD, SOU, CWL, twice daily for LCY have been mentioned.

That's a lot of new flights per week for the airport. Is there really market demand for them all to be profitable ?

That said, I can see where airport management are coming from - they are in a position of either go large or go home. They have maybe 2 years to show MME can be a useful asset to the region as a busy commercial airport and be perceived as such by the voters in the region... or the airport gets sold off and converted to houses

Time to raid the reserves, gamble everything on red, and have one last spin of the roulette wheel...

Of the routes announced, demand across most should be such that if marketing and fares were poor it would almost make no difference, luckily if Eastern can practice what they preached today then we are in good hands. Cardiff and Isle of Man and possibly Southampton too might need that bit extra TLC, but there's no reason why they can't work and work well IF they are given the time to do so.

There's been mention of a three year partnership with Eastern. Price and reliability will be key - not previuosly strong points for Eastern. If they get this right DUB and BHD look like no-brainers, LCY still looks brave in competiton with the train (but could offer good onward connection opportunities), CWL is a transfer of an existing service and IOM looks like a summer fill in.

SOU is a surprise, especially if it is twice daily as suggested above. Has SOU ever been served from MME?

Yeah...by Eastern no less! November 2010 through September 2011. It is thought that their high fares coupled with the aircraft sat idle for too long during an era when you had to be airborne to be profitable were factors in the route being axed, both of which have been mitigated this time around. It is also worth noting that out of Eastern's previous expansions, which include Bristol and Brussels, Southampton was the most successful and longest lasting of the three. If they do get the fares right like they say they are, then another crack at Bristol must be a no brainer given the EE connection.

Yes, Eastern served Southampton before; once or twice daily. It was at a time when they were trying new things such as Brussels. Neither lasted long...hopefully with volume, bigger aircraft and more realiability, it could be different this time.

Cheers - don't remember that! So not the shot in the dark I was thinking of.

Mind you, the new route doesn't seem to have been noticed by SOU yet....

I really hope to god that Eastern have learned their lesson and will deploy bigger aircraft in order to get lower average fares. It could work if the aircraft used are ATR-72's or Q400's

Eastern tried LCY-NCL twice and failed. Both had poor service with frequent delays and cancellations so lets see if this is any better.

Congratulations to all the team at MME for acquiring these new routes. I well remember when SEN was struggling to attract operators/routes pre-EZY and it's great when you achieve something like this.

I wonder if there will be any useful through bookable connecting flights via some of these new destinations: that might help to make them more viable.

According to their website they fly from 'Durham Tees Valley'

Anyone any idea what aircraft they will be using for the new routes, will it be the Jetstream 41 and the Saab 2000??

Couple of additional snippets from the Eastern website:

No mention of the 'F' word at todays announcement

Does this mean IOM just for the TT weeks??

Airline to develop major network from Teesside International

Knowing how Eastern work, I expect they will be paying very little to the airport for operating out of there. I will be certain a very large sweetener has been offered by TIA for them to come in and operate the routes there.

Unfortunately, given the state of the Fleet and reliability, I can’t see them making much of a success with these routes and it will gradually falter over time. Unless of course a re-Fleet is on the cards?