An airline boss has raised hopes that there will be a surge in interest from people wanting to fly to the island when it is finally safe to ease the border restrictions.

Jonathan Hinkles, chief executive of Loganair, said: ’It is really a question of people having the confidence to be able to plan and book travel.’

He pointed out that as soon as the Scottish government last week announced changes to some travel restrictions there was an immediate increase in interest in searches and bookings.

He said he ’would expect the same from the Isle of Man’ if there was an announcement about changes in travel restrictions and he would expect a surge in interest.

Mr Hinkles said he often found that ’the customer confidence level is driven by statements from politicians and ministers. If there is a positive outlook in terms of being able to safely lift some of the restrictions that are in place (I expect) that will translate through in a matter of hours to the number of bookings being taken on air routes from the Isle of Man.

’And that has been the case in all the other markets in which we operate.’

Mr Hinkles said he had ’cautious optimism’ for bookings.

But he said he thinks there will be a ’longer lasting impact’ on business travel patterns, partly because of the ’level of video conferencing which is now the norm’.

He says he sees there are likely to be changes in business travel plans with more people working from home.

And he said Covid has proved to have caused a step change in the business market’.

But he believes that the market for visiting friends and relatives ’will remain strong’ in the future.

He said: ’I think that if border restrictions can be safely relaxed, and that is the key to this, then I think there is a good opportunity for domestic tourism in the Isle of Man provided it is safe to admit visitors.’

As reported in last week’s Manx Independent, Loganair is advertising for more cabin crew at its base at the airport.

The plan is to double the number of cabin crew as only the first step to further growth, said Mr Hinkles.

Speaking from Glasgow, Mr Hinkles said there are plans in the pipeline to launch services to Birmingham along with flights to Edinburgh and doubling the number of daily flights to London Heathrow.

The Scottish airline has been given taxpayers’ money, estimated at more than £4m since April last year, to maintain the Isle of Man’s only passenger air services throughout the pandemic.

Mr Hinkles stressed there was nothing unusual in government help being provided.

He said that ’across a large number of areas’, including Northern Ireland and Scotland, government support has ensured continued services.

’And if you look at the rail network in the UK that has been getting government subsidies of £750m a month from the Department of Transport to keep services going.’

He said there needed to be some subvention in place ’during this exceptional period to make sure that the links we need stay in place. The Isle of Man is not in any way unusual in terms of the approach being taken.

’The structure and magnitude of it is something that is entirely related to the duration and depth of the pandemic which has gone on for far longer and far worse than any of us thought it would be this time last year.’

Mr Hinkle said Loganair is proud of its base in the island and it is always the aim when possible to use local people rather than ’parachuting’ people in.

lMeanwhile it has emerged that Flybe may be close to returning to the skies after administrators said they had completed the sale of the collapsed airline.

Thyme Opco has bought Flybe’s business and assets, and plans to resume flights this summer, although on a smaller scale than before.

The new owners are linked to Cyrus Capital, which teamed up with Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Group in a rescue deal in February 2019, which kept what was Europe’s largest regional airline afloat for 13 months.