FlymayBe

[LloydyCromyBumy]

A mate pitched up at Southampton to check in for the BE925 to Guernsey at 1405 today to be told the flight was cancelled,"for operational reasons".
A quick call to someone in the know told me that this was due to crew shortages and was scrubbed 2 days ago.
So howcome he was sold a ticket yesterday for a non-existent flight ?

Still,at least FlyBe's standard of service now fits their low cost image.

[Pembo330]

A nightmare of an incident for the passenger involved I'm sure, but I also guess its an isolated incident rather than the 'norm'.

I've flown Flybe and never had a problem.

ALL airlines have bad days, even the best. Bad days, or bad incidents don't make a bad airline.

[terryjoint]

I fly from Spain to Southampton all the time with them, other than the stupidity of charging for even 1 kg overweight I have found them excellent service, however the 146 is a bit slow and crammped

[Smokie]

Just as well you have'nt savoured the delights of the "T"400 then.

[Wycombe]

I'm all for FlyBE and it's strategy to deliver low-cost flights to the regions, but definately don't congratulate them for this truly awful piece of spin:

"FlyBE success leads to route closure"

"Since the launch of flyBE. in July 2002 as a low fares regional airline, the fortunes of the airline have been transformed. In the last financial year 2002/3 flyBE. recorded a small profit, a significant improvement on previous trading.

This was as a result of an aggressive marketing campaign coupled with low fares offerings. FlyBE. has recorded a fall in the average fare paid by passengers and as anticipated, this has been offset by huge increases in passenger numbers which have increased from 2.2 million to 4.1 million in the last eighteen months.

As a consequence flyBE. is under pressure to increase capacity on many routes, to provide more seats to meet a growing demand and its business model regarding fleet rationalization aims to have only two operating aircraft types in the fleet.

FlyBE. will therefore operate only Dash-8-400 aircraft and BAE146 jet aircraft in its fleet and smaller aircraft are being returned to the manufacturers.

As a result flyBE., the largest scheduled airline in the Channel Islands, today announces the withdrawal of the Jersey – London City route effective from 16th June 2004.

The decision to remove the Jersey-London City route was made following plans to replace the 37 seat Dash-200 series aircraft based at Jersey with the 78 seat Dash-400, in June 2004. The change in aircraft follows flyBE.’s continued and significant growth in the area, which has seen advanced bookings on Jersey routes up by 65% over the last year. Unfortunately, demand for the Jersey-London City route cannot support this increase in capacity......"

Err, sorry dear Customers, but because we're succesful, we can't fly this route anymore.

Sorry but this really takes trying to spin negative news a bit too far :(

[Niaga Dessip]

And apparently it is for similarly successful reasons in other parts of the system that the Belfast - Blackpool route is being dropped this summer!

Niaga Dessip

edited for spelling!

[JobsaGoodun]

Errr what exactly is the problem here!!!

Flybe have changed massively from the airline they were when they launched this route. Their success as a low cost airline means that the necessary changes to their fleet no longer support this route so they are ditching it. Sorry but I don't see the problem here. It makes complete sense.

Flybe took over this service from VLM who operated the route once a day, Flybe then grew the route to 3 return daily flights. It's a profitable route so you can't seriously expect an airline to give up a profitable route in this day and age without full assessment of its yield in the future.

It is clear that with the 37 seat Q200 leaving the fleet that an aircraft double the size cannot sustain the low passenger levels that the route generates.

I would anticipate that this route will be snapped up as soon as Flybe drop it and given their current expansion I would expect it will be by VLM.

We'll see what happens.

[glynn-kayes]

And ditching rotations from BHD,especially LBA and BRS

[Wycombe]

Jobsa....

It's not such much the fact that it's happening, it's the way the story has been spun to reflect more on the success of the airline and detract from the "bad news".

Why not just be honest and say "we are trading in a small aircraft for a bigger one and cannot sustain the low passenger levels on this route with the bigger type" and leave it at that.

Alaistair Campbell would be proud!

[JobsaGoodun]

Wycombe.

Is'nt that exactly what the last sentence is all about. It explains quite clearly the reason for giving up the route. The airline is now successful and profitable,something it wasn't 2 years ago.

Glynn

Why put all yur eggs in one basket. Traditionally British European was heavily reliant on business passengers to increase yield on routes and then something like 9/11 happens and business passengers tighten their own budgets.
All that Flybe is doing now is minimising their exposure to such risks by having a more even split of leisure and business destinations. Along with increased competition flybe have ditched rotations out of BHD to existing destinations and adding routes like SOU/BRS-Bergerac - niche leisure routes along with the EXT/SOU-AGP/ALC.

It would be worth pointing out that flybe have competed effectively against Easyjet on the BRS route. They will do so on the NCL route and also on the new GLA/EDI routes just launched. Belfast is getting more flights from flybe now than ever before......not less.

[Wycombe]

yep....my point exactly. The bad news is "buried" at the end (where perhaps 50% of the people who started reading the article won't see it!).

[glynn-kayes]

However you look at it,its a reduction,a reduction in services meaning they are not as popular as they were before.Now Flybe are giving away double points on Bhd to Edi/Gla and also giving lounge access to BA silver/gold card holders flying on their services to Scotland.To anyone with half a brain this states that these services are under performing and Flybe are trying to salvage a last ditch attempt that BA couldent be bothered with as they lost lost too much money for the last two years on Bhd to Gla/Edi services.Go online and compair prices between Ezy and Be and I bet that Ezy always comes out the cheapest.I wonder how long the Manchester service will last now that its the only service that BA still have from Belfast.

[MaxProp]

No it doesnt. it may just mean that the aircraft are bigger but still moving the same or more passengers--albeit at less frequency which is not a good thing from the customers point of view.

[Hial Flyer]

I have just booked BHD to GLA with Flybe for a weekend trip in May and Flybe was £40 cheaper than EZY and also the flight times were better.:D

[er82]

However you deliver news about such route closures, someone is always going to find fault with it. The route has always produced high yield because of the high ticket prices for the business man/woman. Unfortunately, as with the Bergamo route which ended in January, the marketing department don't seem to realise that during the winter months popularity for such routes will decrease. Since the announcement of the JER-LCY route closure, the pax loads have increased. Not a coincidence, it's just that business always picks up around this time of year. And with more tower blocks being built at Canary Wharf (and hence the added business in the area), and with the tube being extended to LCY at the beginning of next year (I think), the route could only gain in popularity.
The BGY route last year (JER-SOU-BGY) always had really good loads during the summer months. Perhaps if during the quieter winter months it had been redcuded from a daily service to perhaps a twice-weekly service, the loads would have remained high enough to make a profit, and the route wouldn't have been dropped.
Not sure how the BHD-GLA/EDI routes will fair, but the SOU-EDI route seems to be doing quite well at the moment.
And as far as announcing route closures go, it would be even nicer if crew within the company (who actually operate the route) were informed before re-fuellers at said airports!