MANX2 AIRLINE:THE MANX2 airline involved in yesterday's crash at Cork Airport is a "virtual airline" in that it does not operate its own flights.
Rather it sells seats on flights which are operated for it by a number of different carriers.
The airline, based in the Isle of Man, has been in operation since 2006. It operates a number of scheduled services between destinations in Britain and Ireland.
The aircraft involved in the crash, a Fairchild Metroliner turbo-prop, was leased from a company called Flightline BCN, which is based in Barcelona in Spain.
Manx2 has been operating a twice-daily Cork-Belfast service since last September. On its website Manx2 says its flights are operated by VanAir Europe, FLM Aviation, Flightlinebcn and Links Aviation. It carries about 100,000 passengers annually. In addition to the Cork-Belfast route, Manx2 offers services from Galway to Belfast and the Isle of Man.
The founders of the company had previously been involved in an airline known as Blue Island in the Channel Islands.
Manx2 chairman Noel Hayes said last month that the airline had been expanding its Irish operations for the past five years.
He said that while the writing was on the wall for State-subsidised routes under the Government’s Public Service Obligation contracts, the company believed that there was a need to maintain connectivity throughout the island.
“We have had huge support from Cork Chamber and the Belfast business community for the Cork to Belfast service. We are disappointed with the Government’s comments on Galway Airport, saying people can drive to Dublin.
“We are talking to the regional airports to see if our model of 12,000 passengers a year per route can work for them. The larger airlines seem to need 30,000 or 40,000 passengers to make a profit from a route. We think that serving, say, 2,000 people in Galway or Donegal could still potentially be a successful market for us.”
The aircraft involved in the crash was built in 1992. Designed to seat 19 passengers, the Metroliner was in production from the late 1960s to the late 1990s.
David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight Global magazine, said: “The Metroliner is quite an old-fashioned aircraft by today’s standards, as it’s some years since any were produced.
“Although there is no suggestion there was anything wrong with the aircraft that crashed, Metroliners have been involved in a number of accidents over the years. This is mainly because they are operated by regional airlines and regional airlines do have more incidents than the bigger airlines.”