Originally Posted by
adfly
Flybe have released their Summer 2019 flights up to mid June. Looks as if the E195 will stick around for another year as I can see the following bookable on it:
Alicante - 4 weekly
Faro - 3 weekly
Malaga - 4 weekly
Palma - 3 weekly
Manchester has been cut from 6-5 daily on weekdays and Bordeaux, Brest, Limoges and Rodez are not yet on sale. Most of the rest is pretty similar to this year though from what I can see.
Ground hog day as per usual at SOU. Let’s not reignight the investment to attract another airline debate (even though Southend have just attracted Adria airways on top of Ryanair already this year), but how can flymaybe be so stagnant? I mean it’s not like they have announced anything new at any other bases either. Lets not forget all 195s are going, not to mention a bunch of q400s have been handed back with no replacements planned (more to follow as well). How can the definitive number one regional airline in the UK not be showing plans of growth, or have new aircraft on order (no the 175s outstanding do not count as they clearly don’t want them)? It’s a pretty established fact that to survive in aviation you have to be constantly in growth mode or at least taking an innovative approach, and flymaybe have stood still for many years now. Personally it feels like they are just waiting to be put out of their misery, be it by merger or takeover (they certainly seemed disappointed about the stobart thing not going ahead). What a sad state of affairs for an airline that has a complete monopoly on regional flying. The thing that really grates on me is that when they first came on the scene they were ambitious and innovative, and then systematically removed pretty much all the other regional airlines to only drop half their routes shortly afterwards. Unfortunately SOU are completely in their pocket, and there are no signs of them ridden themselves from the cancer that is flymaybe anytime soon.