The collapse of Stobart Air is obviously a tragedy for those employed by the company and my heart goes out to them, but could the pandemic prove BA/BACF's ticket to a return to the regions? With some of the smaller players falling by the wayside there is certainly an opportunity there for those routes where the A320s/737s of U2 and FR are too big. Loganair and Eastern are the main alternative operators, but as we've seen with the MME-LHR codeshare, there is opportunity for collaboration.

I would think there is an opportunity for a robust BA regional network to emerge over the next couple of years, perhaps not to the scale of BACON et al previously, but certainly enough for the group to allow viable point to point regional UK flying. The corporate market out of LCY is unlikely to recover for a few years, if ever, so this would represent a golden opportunity.