Originally Posted by
Brigantee
What people tend to forget is flybe are in this postion because of unfair completion from the likes of easy jet and Ryanair , this needs addressing .
I too am amazed as to how you can complain about unfair competition from EJ and Ryanair. Do those two airlines get subsidies from local government to operate services out of Newquay, Guernsey and elsewhere. Aurigny's main complaint has been Flybe's subsidy from the States of Guernsey for the Heathrow service, working out at about 25 - 30 quid per passenger... and the flights are rarely more than 50 - 60 % full !
I am glad that Flybe can be saved - not only because of the 2000 jobs at stake, but also the disaster that it would cause for the tourism industry and economy of Guernsey and other communities, as well as the knock on effect it would have on the likes of Blue Islands.
But the responsibility lies clearly in the hands of the three partners in Connect.... Virgin, Stobart and Cyrus - all three of whom seemed to be happy to pick up Flybe for peanuts and then pick the flesh off the skeleton.
As for APD, I am all in favour of that to be cancelled or completely restructured.... a Flybe Q400 with 80 pax on board for a 30 minute flight, and producing minimal carbon emissions per passenger, lands up paying twice more tax than, for example, a general aviation B747, let's say, a Saudi Royal Family flight with a dozen family members, off to Riyadh... the latter producing more carbon emissions just on take off than the whole Flybe flight !!
But a UK government hand-out ?? No way !! It will only go to the benefit of the investors in Connect and Flybe will still eventually collapse.