Originally Posted by
Reversethrustset
I'm not sure people are getting it. CWL is not a profitable base for Flybe even with government funding, which on the face of it isn't a massive amount. The main reason for the closure is a combination of poor returns and the ejets. Flybe, or Connect, or whatever you want to call them nowadays clearly want shot of all ejets, I've seen the operating costs, they are staggering, so with the ejets gone that means routes out of CWL that realistically can't be flown anymore are FCO, FAO, VRN, VCE, TXL, MUC and MXP. That leaves JER, DUB, CDG, EDI, GLA, ORK and BHD (maybe I've missed the odd one). These routes mean they can operate them out of base and it'll be far cheaper because to have a crew base on two aircraft would cost in the region of £200k per crew in base and you'd need to run a 2 aircraft base with at least 5.5 crews per airframe, do the maths. Why spend that money when you can operate the routes from already established bases that'll cost you nothing extra. Also regarding the deal, there's no way on this earth Flybe did a deal with the airport that they couldn't easily get out of.
Ok then explain to me why it's profitable now to run the routes non based when it wasn't 6 years? What's changed? Or will be get Flybe doing the same as they did in 2013 in a few years time.
Also Flybe operate other small bases ie Isle of Man and Newquay and Aberdeen and Glasgow yet a 2 to 3 Q400 aircraft base at Cardiff isn't viable like them?
As a customer what the Flybe withdrawal means is that Flybe will become less of an option for domestic routes especially and Easyjet will become much more of an option.
What I do hope is that the airport will be able to get other airlines on many of the routes that will be lost to minimise the damage.