Originally Posted by
Cyrano
To be more exact, at about 1:18 into the programme (audio
here), WW was asked about flybe pointing to Brexit as one of the reasons for its failure, and he said:
"I think flybe was making up a number of excuses for what has been a poor performance over a number of years, so quite honestly I would dismiss what flybe has said, because it's not really relevant to the industry at large. There are issues that Brexit means we need to address, but these are issues that the industry at large and certainly IAG can address without too much concern."
flyBe does have a number of challenges, the double APD is one and the props don’t help the reputation much either. Fundamentally, it was hamstrung with expensive leases for aircraft which meant the aircraft could never make money. I’m not sure that Virgin/Stobart is the solution for all these problems, but they might be able to refinance/negotiate leases on the jet fleet.
I still think a mixed fleet of Q400s and A220/used A319/73G could work, in place of the Embraers. A UK version of Volotea, if you like. I don’t think any low-cost airline has made p2p E175/195 service work? BA Cityflyer from LCY is an exception, but quite a high yield market, apparently.