Is Newquay really a BA UK Hub?

Press release here: https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/council-...t-with-skybus/

"Daily flights between Newquay and London are set to resume later this month after a short-term contract was agreed between Cornwall Council and the Cornish Skybus airline.

The service had been cancelled following the collapse of the previous operator, Eastern Airways, last week.

The route is operated under a Public Service Obligation, which sees Cornwall Council and the Department for Transport provide financial support if required to ensure the service is maintained.

Skybus will act as the interim provider providing daily flights between Cornwall Airport Newquay and London Gatwick from Sunday, November 23, increasing to twice-daily services from mid-February. "

Although to add more details, looking at the booking website (https://www.skybus.co.uk), it appears that they are actually being run by Blue Islands under contract.

I'm sure I speak for many Cornwall residents in saying "WT (in a very real sense) AF?" - first reaction was to think we were about to be spending 2 hours+ on a Twin Otter as part of Cornwall Council's ever-more imaginative search for unexpected solutions.

To be fair, it's a punchy comeback to the haters who thought there were only two or three remaining independent airlines in the UK who could operate a regional route... there's always someone you haven't thought of.

As far as I can see from the new Skybus website for the route, it will use a mixture of the 3x daily LGW slot pairs, so there's a funny mixture of morning / middle of day / evening rotations, with aircraft based out of NQY. Unclear whether it's just spending long periods of time on the ground or if Skybus/Blue Islands can operate any Channel Islands etc routes in the gap.

The website looks suspiciously like the old Eastern Airways website too (particularly if you try to book for April when 3x daily flights are shown as "cancelled") so not sure if some assets have been bought out of administration by Skybus to get this going.

Digging further, there are some more interesting details on the Skybus press release (https://www.skybus.co.uk/latest-news...ick-air-route/)

"A refreshed timetable of flights will operate daily from 23 November and will gear up to twice-daily services on weekdays from 14 February 2026.Skybus will operate the route using a 70-seat ATR72 aircraft � the world�s most popular regional turboprop aircraft � marking a significant step-up from the much-loved smaller aircraft Skybus flies on the Isles of Scilly�s lifeline air routes."
"A permanent Skybus-liveried ATR72 aircraft will then enter service in mid-2026; it will be operated by Skybus Newquay-based pilots, cabin crew and engineers under an arrangement with Aurigny Air Services of Guernsey."

"Further benefits to the Cornish economy will stem from Skybus�s introduction of new same-ticket fast connections between London and the Isles of Scilly. These will be delivered by aligning the new London Gatwick-Newquay flights with existing services from Newquay to the Isles of Scilly by February 2026. "

Credit to CCC for getting something up and running fast. Not sure I'd swap First on GWR for a Twotter.... ATR sounds fine though.

Creating a though London-Isles of Scilly link sounds smart.

Definitely one cheer for getting a temporary fix, though the timings are confusing: the whole point of the PSO was 2x daily (morning and evening) so that you can do a day in London for meetings and instead from Feb there's a mixture of timing pairs. Hopefully that gets resolved in S26.

Monetising/subsidising with the IoS connection is also neat (shame they couldn't do it via my local airport at Land's End, but can't have everything....) but it looks like that is locking in the idea of using LGW long term and treating it as even more of a leisure route outbound from London rather than focusing on what Cornwall residents need for onward connectivity. I hope I'm wrong, but if Skybus have the contract longterm, it's not exactly easy to imagine a BA codeshare or an LHR/LCY route being part of the picture.

Edit to add: the press release from Skybus makes it look like they will run their own (well, Aurigny's) ATR72 from S26 to create a Scilly connecting service despite the full 4y PSO not having been awarded - though I guess that they wouldn't have taken that step without a pretty good steer on what the level of competition for the contract will be.

I was close!

It is a big step up for Skybus but as a local company at least they will be committed to this route and shouldn't be cancelling or delaying flights to prioritise private charters like Eastern did. The arrangements also look sensible, a wet lease from Blue Islands and then an arrangement with Aurigny that looks deeper than just a damp or dry lease arrangement, but at the same time means Skybus aren't shouldering the costs and responsibilities of operating a crew and engineering base from NQY on their own from scratch.

The latter was I think one of the factors putting off the other regional carriers as to make the route work they would have had to set up a new crew base at NQY.

I had forgotten this but interestingly the MD of Skybus, Jonathan Hinkles, was the CEO of Loganair for 8 years and so has experience of both running PSO routes and ATR services. It gives me some confidence that they can make a success of this and it won't be an Eastern amateur hour mark two.

I wasn't aware of that re Jonathan Hinkles before but that's really interesting (appointment press release below). Loganair seems to have been well run recently, certainly as a NQY passenger they have been the best option, and if he can take Skybus in a similar direction it could be a very positive development. Keeping it on-topic for the BA board, that presumably means he has overseen the growth of BA codeshares for LM so maybe it's not completely out of the question for Skybus to get there in future.

https://islesofscillysteamshipgroup....tor-of-skybus/

The big thing for me is - as Voice says above - "It is a big step up for Skybus but as a local company at least they will be committed to this route and shouldn't be cancelling or delaying flights to prioritise private charters like Eastern did."

For regular users of the route like me, its the commitment I am looking for. Which, for the past 12 months, just was not there with Eastern. I really do not want to be checking the status and location of my plane on Flight Tracker etc on my way to the airport to get an indication of whether my flight will operate, or if Eastern are instead using the aircraft for a private charter etc and not advising passengers until they are sat in the departure lounge.

The "temporary" nature of the contract may not just be for Skybus' benefit therefore - it may also be so Cornwall CC can make sure they have not made another serious mistake. As it turns out they did with awarding it to Eastern.

This is really drifting off-topic for BA. But another interesting twist in this latest news. Seems that is some serious networking & plane swaps going on - Skybus taking on a service for Aurigny between Alderney & Guernsey. (details here https://channeleye.media/wings-over-...-to-the-skies/ ) - but in an indirect way this seems like further good news for the London->Newquay route if Skybus are making good friends in the Channel Islands to help support them.

From a BA point of view, worth noting that through-ticketing from Aurigny to BA is already in place (expanded to LCY flights earlier this year - link below). That suggests that it's not too many steps to see that applying to a Skybus-operated flight (onward to Alderney) and it might help to prepare the ground for NQY-LGW flights benefiting from a similar arrangement with BA.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgkd5rxmlgko

New twist! Blue Islands who were going to subcontracted to run the new service until Skybus get the Auginy plane has just gone under!

There's a degree of naivety and touching faith above. Look at what a flustercuck this is. How much more money are they going to hose at operators doing this sort of lark? Two of the four (five if you count Skybus) remaining UK regional turboprop operators have closed this month, Eastern and now Blue Islands. Aurigny are an endlessly loss making necessity to keep Guernsey connected to the UK which leaves Loganair and Emerald still surviving on a (semi) commercial basis. One is part subsidised by the Scottish Government as a necessity, the other is the Aer Lingus operator in Northern Ireland.

I suspect Cornwall are actually going to set up their own carrier the way things are going.

This is very poor management by CCC. Surely when they agreed a deal with Skybus, CCC were told the initial arrangements included a wet lease with Blue Islands, and CCC then looked at thw finances of Blue Islands?

Unless Aurigny step in with a replacement wet lease quickly, this could well be the shortest "short term" contract ever negotiated by Counrwall County Council!

OK I take back my positive words about CCC. Due diligence and all that�.