Originally Posted by
ATNotts
Am I wrong, or were last weeks cancellations not that much worse than has happened on previous "bad days"? Clearly it's never good to mess around passengers at short notice, but as in all modes of public transport occasionally "sh1t happens".
What has been perhaps overlooked, and not reported is just how much notice BE has given of the closure of the bases, and the dropping of routes that are coming down the tracks at the start of the winter season. There is more than one large LCC that would have knocked services on the head a month's notice, rather than carrying on for 6 months - good on FlyBe for that.
As the 2 bases that are being closed are Operation Blackbird bases I'd imagine that there was some sort of clause in the contracts as it would've been obvious once they released the winter schedule that they were closing and it could've opened up Flybe to possible legal action if they hadn't notified the airports.
What it does do is give the effected airports time to speak to other airlines to potentially get the lost routes back and attract new airlines to base and if Flybe do intend to carry on flying into those airports to negotiate new charges for landing and handling and such.