UK airline Stobart Air, which operates the Aer Lingus Regional brand as well as some services for Flybe, has disclosed expansion plans costing €25 million that will include the addition of two E195s that will be based at Southend Airport in the UK.
Stobart plans to use the Embraer aircraft on new routes, not on Ireland-bound services. But we have been here before haven’t we with Flybe? Flybe took on the E195 when the airline was at its zenith only to find that it could not fill the aircraft and that in turn nearly collapsed the airline.
Stobart Air is a regional operator that is nowhere near the size of Flybe, with a brand nowhere near as powerful, but consider this: two million people live within one hour of Southend airport and if Stobart Air can provide services to high popularity European destinations not served by easyJet from Southend that is an all-year round route such as The Canary islands for example, this could work. We wait to see, but this is one big risk for Stobart Air.
Stobart has also announced a shake-up of its senior management by appointing chief financial officer, Graeme Buchanan as managing director. He will report to Warwick Brady, deputy chief executive of the Stobart group.
Meanwhile, in its annual report, fastjet has stated that it plans to transition to an all-Embraer fleet by the end of this year once its remaining A319-100 is returned to ICBC Financial Leasing by late September 2017 and the airline has taken delivery of two E190s in October and two ERJ-145s wet-leased from equity partner Solenta Aviation and in service for Fastjet Zimbabwe.
Join us in London on the 7th December 2017 for Airline Economics Growth Frontiers London where there will be a focus on regional aircraft finance, leasing and investment before the European Aviation 100 Awards in the evening.