The Airport Operator Magazine - Pages 32-34
Gary Cobb, who took over as Isle of Man Airport Director in August, is looking at the best way to safeguard the future of routes from the island to Liverpool, London and Manchester.
Through the coming winter season he will consider whether the airport should maintain its current “open skies” approach on these routes or whether it might be better to move to a licence-based approach to ensure that competition does not lead to saturation and decisions by airlines to abandon a route completely.
Cobb came to his Isle of Man Airport leadership role following earlier stints at Gatwick and Highlands and Islands Airports.
Cobb explained to The Airport Operator that “one of the big fears on the island (and what has been seen in the past) is where you have a stable operator running one route, a new operator comes onto that route, takes passengers from the incumbent, both of them fail to make money and then both leave that route”. He said avoiding that requires “a very careful dance."
