Airbuses for FlyBe

[DQ4]

Heard through the grapevine today that flybe are getting Airbuses. The annoucement will be made at the farnborough airshow.

[MaxAOB]

:O

Heard this from a semi-official source a few months ago - well i heard that they were looking into it! Will be intrigued to see how they work all year round though - especially after the jet debacle a while back. According to O'Leary they will be bust by xmas anyway!!!

Another rumour i heard is that those new hangars at egte are being built specifically with 319's in mind.

Any flbes with more data? I assume that they will need some airbus type rated people - from where though i don't know!!!!!!!

:uhoh: :ok: :8 :8 :hmm:

[puddle-jumper2]

:yuk: I wouldn't take much notice of what O'Leary say's about FlyBe, he couldn't be further off the mark. FlyBe have had a great previous year and from what I hear are in line for more profits next year and the year after. They are also a private company and so don't have to worry about any shares taking a nose dive. :sad:

As for the airbus rumour, the staff are usually the last to find out about things like that but it wouldn't surprise me as the 146 is getting a bit long in the tooth now.

[MOR]

The Airbus rumour comes up every year - except last year, when it was 737-600s. Believe it when you see them parked on the ramp.

Then ask yourself how they will operate them out of SOU...

The only reason there was a profit last year, was because flybe sold some Heathrow slots. They continue to make an operating loss.

In order to buy aircraft, you have to be able to prove financial fitness, which often requires evidence of significant cash reserves. This could be a problem...

That said, their backers continue to stump up the cash, so who knows how much longer they will be around. My hunch is a long time - once their conversion to lo-co is complete, they will have cleverly positioned themselves in a market O'Leary can't compete in.

The hangar was built to accomodate any of the 150-seat class jets. The reason for that is simple - third-party maintenance work. Nothing at all to do with fleet acquisition, apart from the obvious future requirement that there will be a new fleet of jets, at some point.

With regard to the 146, yes they are old... but from what I hear, flybe have re-leased the ones they were going to hand back, as BAe are desperate to keep them flying (rather than join the parking lot of discarded BAe products at Woodford). They should be way cheaper to run now, than 737s.

I would FAR rather work for flybe than O'Leary (shudder)...

[GoEDI]

If and when they get them, it will allow the Scottish expansion that they have promised! :D

[Raw Data]

Yeah, right...

I was enticed to EDI as part of the last "Scottish Expansion", about five years ago.

It lasted about a year. Then we lost the aircraft to another route, and ended up with seriously crappy duties everywhere except EDI, positioning to BHX to do airport standbys, 6 days a week HOTAC in SOU, all sorts of crap as the company changed its strategy again and again.

I think we will always regret not continuing with the EDI-LCY route. The reason was understandable at the time, but it was a good route, and we were generally pretty full (especially in Business). Money permitting, it would have made a lot more sense to develop the route. It could have become a plum route, with a little investment.

Anyway... treat proposed expansion plans with a large dose of suspicion. What will happen is that the planners in EXT (whose lives will not be disrupted) will experiment and, when it all goes wrong, will simply experiment in a different direction. They are not concerned about the folk in the trenches having to uproot their families at short notice, and move to the next "centre of the known universe" that will make the corporate fortune (or not). Four base changes in five years...

The support received from immediate line management was something along the lines of "that's the aviation industry, if you don't like it, leave"...

[puddle-jumper2]

MOR,

"then ask yourself how they will operate them out of Southampton"

I guess they will operate them the same way others currently operate airbus's and 737's out of Southampton. It will certainly be a lot easier than operating the 146 which is very much restricted once the airfield temp. goes above 22c - trust me I deal with this on a daily basis. :{

"The only reason there was a profit last year, was because flybe sold some Heathrow slots. They continue to make an operating loss."

I'd have to agree with the bit about the slots but you are wrong about them making an operating loss. They have actually made an operating profit for the last 4 months and are forecast to continue making this profit for at least the next 2 years, although at the end of the day it's all just a paper exercise.

"In order to buy aircraft, you have to be able to prove financial fitness, which often requires evidence of significant cash reserves. This could be a problem... "

So what do you call a 400m+ back up from the Walker group then ? If this was the case they wouldn't have been able to purchase a load of brand new Dash 8 400's.

"but from what I hear, flybe have re-leased the ones they were going to hand back, as BAe are desperate to keep them flying"

True - but for the simple reason that the new Dash 8 400's are taking longer to arrive than they were originally supposed to.

"They should be way cheaper to run now, than 737s."

Wrong - the 146 is now very expensive to run due to high maintenance and fuel cost's. They can't wait to replace them with something new but have been far too busy with introducing the Dash 8's and would have bitten off more than they can chew if they tried to update both fleets at once.

"I would FAR rather work for flybe than O'Leary (shudder)..."

Totally agree with that one !:ok:

Raw Data, just read your post.

Totally agree - but a bit shocked at your negative attitude towards the FlyBe management, as you have generally always defended them in the past against those that have been unfairly treated and complain on the company forum.

Dare I say it - welcome to the real world. ;)

[Raw Data]

Puddle-jumper2

negative attitude towards the FlyBe management, as you have generally always defended them in the past against those that have been unfairly treated and complain on the company forum.

Well, you need to get a little perspective on that. Most of the managers are fine, and many of the complaints on the company forum (I assume you mean the PPRuNe one, I don't have anything to do with the other one), are either scurrilous, ill-informed or just plain wrong. Some aren't, but most were.

That said, I have always vigorously supported staff grievances through Open Channel, and, on more than one occasion, direct to the manager concerned, as many cabin crew will confirm.

In my own case, I have been dicked around mercilessly, and presented with unpalatable options - and have had no support at all from my immediate line management. I have had better support from other (more senior) managers.

I don't believe for a minute that "this is aviation, get used to it" is an adequate response. Treating people with respect and showing that you value them, is the way forward. Perhaps I expect too much...

I do think the process by which bases are opened and closed, takes little account of the needs of the staff concerned. The re-location allowance is pitiful when you look at the actual cost of moving from, say, EDI to SOU. Houses are twice the price for a start. The emotional upheaval for family member is very stressful, and yet no account is made of that. I worked out that, to move from EDI to SOU, would cost a minimum of 15,000 pounds.

Of course this sort of thing isn't unique to flybe, and I have noted other companies that are a lot worse in this regard.

So, basically I like the company, but acknowledge that there are some problems. Ours are less than many airlines, more than some. I feel it is reasonable to speak out against the more obvious problems, because nothing else seems to have an effect... although no doubt somebody will get upset about my saying so here... :cool:

BTW some of your assertions in your answer to MOR are way off base, but I won't go into that here. You clearly don't know the whole story!