Originally Posted by
BigBlue1
I think it's clear to anyone reading this thread that if Flibea want to survive as a business then major change is going to be needed. In my opinion, they are going to have to take on their rivals in rail and bus head on. No other way about it. From one look at their website I can see the major flaw with their business plan straight away. Why are they running flights from Aberdeen to NewQuay? Or Aberdeen to the East Midlands? How many people actually commute to work between these locations? Exactly, not many. If they want to make money. Serious money. Then they are going to have to take on the big boys in the golden commuter routes. If they want to make something of themselves then they should be taking on Citylinc and Scottrail on the Glasgow to Edinburgh route! Think about it for a minute. The bus is cheap as chips but the roads are choc-a-bloc. The rail is fast but it costs like £26 a day and you don't even get a seat. IF they were to do a return fare between Glasgow and Edinburgh for say the same price as the train I bet you that they would fill their planes with 100% capacity. People would rush to buy tickets between the two cities because they could be guaranteed a seat unlike the train. People might even be happy to pay the £26 knowing that they will get just that, a seat. Over-time they could chip away at Scottrails customer base and to meet growing demand expand their fleet so that they could offer a flight every 10 minutes in both directions during peak hours of 6.30am and 9am and the commute home between 4.30pm and 7pm. There would be no flights between these rush hour times as it wouldn't be profitable and so between 9am and 4.30pm they could perform their other routes for those looking to go on holiday to longer distance places. This profitable model could then be replicated all over the UK between nearby cities where bus and rail services are letting customers down.
Taking your Edinburgh to Glasgow example, do you really think that flying is preferable to the train? If you are in Princes Street and you want to get to central Glasgow, just compare the journey times.
Train - walk to Waverley, get on train, arrive Queen St. walk to George Sq. Total journey time = ~90 minutes
Plane - tram/taxi to Turnhouse, security, flight to Glasgow, bus/taxi to George Sq. Total journey time = ~130 minutes, assuming Kingston Bridge isn’t log jammed.
If that doesn’t convince you, add in the taxi/bus/tram fares to the plane and it becomes even more unattractive, even if you’ve got to stand all the way on the train.
I’m sure there are profitable routes for FlyBe connecting the business hubs of UK, times and routes are the key.