Airline Flybe has announced plans to cut 500 jobs, reduce operations bases and rationalise its route network.
Isle of Man Airport director Ann Reynolds says she is waiting to hear details on how the cutbacks could affect the Isle of Man.
Flybe employs 54 staff in the island and bases two aircraft here.
At a press conference on Monday, the airline’s new chief executive officer Saad Hammad said he could not give specifics about which routes or bases would be affected as the airline was consulting with the trade unions and staff representatives.
He told reporters: ‘If we do close a regional base that doesn’t necessarily mean we would stop flying to that airport.’
He said Flybe needed to ‘shrink to grow’, having built up an ‘excessive cost base over the years’. ‘We’ve deployed too many aircraft and we’re going to have to ground some aircraft as we go forward. We’ve got too much frequency on too many routes, we’ve got too many routes which are simply unprofitable.
‘So in essence it’s about shrinking to grow, shrinking to a defensible, strong core which provides a solid foundation for growth. These cuts are an enabler for us to realise the vision to be the unrivalled provider of regional connectivity. It’s all a means to an end.’
Mr Hammad, who joined Flybe from budget airline easyJet where he was chief commercial officer, added: ‘We are keen to have this exercise complete at the end of March. There will be two waves, the end of January and the end of March.’
Flybe has already announced it will be pulling out of Gatwick in March.
The airline operates flights from Ronaldsway to Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Luton and has a contract to operate the patient transfer service, which requires an aircraft to be based in the island. The Manchester route has 12,000 passengers a month, Liverpool 10,500, Birmingham 3,800 and Luton 1,500.
Ms Reynolds said: ‘At the moment we are waiting to see what the details are.’
Mr Hammad told reporters that Flybe’s strongest core bases were Southampton, Birmingham, Manchester and Belfast. He said he wanted to ‘match the right aircraft with the right route’. ‘Non-core assets’ are also being reviewed, he said.
‘We are engaging with airports. They can contribute by lowering passenger charges. Some are more expensive than others,’ he said.
Ronaldsway has already lost direct flights to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Southampton this year while Bristol is now a summer only service.