THE airline Manx2.com is stopping its flights to East Midlands Airport from Sunday 4th July.
The company says it is due to the “current mismatch between capacity and demand on Isle of Man routes.”
All passengers booked to travel after this date will be offered re-booking onto Manx2.com’s Gloucester, Leeds Bradford or Blackpool services or a full refund.
Manx2.com started its East Midlands route in March 2008and passenger numbers increased from 5,641 that year to 6,593. However, since the start of 2010, despite reduced fares and a strong local marketing campaign with business partners at East Midlands Airport, passenger numbers are down by 25 per cent year on year, with April down over 30 per cent.
Chairman Noel Hayes said, “This decline has been partly caused by reduced transfer traffic following easyJet's complete withdrawal from East Midlands Airport; also bad weather and ash disruptions, and significantly now, the impact of more seats flooding on to Isle of Man market at a time when passenger numbers are already down.
“Isle of Man Airport figures show total April year to date passenger numbers down 8 per cent with April down 23 per cent. Despite this downturn, FlyBe have added over 30,000 seats a year to the Isle of Man market and now easyJet have added a further 90,000 seats.
“The simple equation is that 17,000 fewer people have travelled to the Isle of Man in the first four months of 2010, but the market has been flooded with 120,000 extra seats on an annual basis so load factors are sharply down.
“At Manx2 we need to ensure we maintain a strong and healthy route network, so whereas we would normally preserve a loss making route through a bad patch, the amount of overcapacity coming into the Island means we have had to cut the route to ensure the rest of our network remains healthy.
“The Isle of Man's route network is being largely determined by FlyBe and easyJet and what they want to do. This produces short term consumer benefit in lower prices, but long term instability and pain as capacity is inevitably cut back again.
“With significant cuts expected to impact on the UK economy this year, the current mismatch between capacity and demand on Isle of Man routes is not sustainable. Hence, Manx2.com's decision to expand into Wales and Ireland, thereby reducing its dependence on an oversupplied market.”
Manx2.com employs 60 staff and has a fleet of seven aircraft providing up to 30 flights a day to the Isle of Man. Its customer services, reservations and operations departments are all based in the new hangar facility at Ronaldsway Airport.
Manx2.com carries 100,000 passengers a year between the Isle of Man and Blackpool, Belfast, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle, Gloucester and Jersey. It has recently been voted the Island’s best small company for the second time in three years at the annual IOM Newspapers Excellence Awards.
