Originally Posted by
bean
Actually Flybe was prifitable in 2007 8 9 It was Jim Frenches crazy plan to buy masses of Embraers that started thr problems
Saad Hammad did manage to get costs control, did the deal with Embraer and Republic to ditch outstanding orders for Embraers in exchange for Republic Q400s
and under his control, load factors and yield imcreased significantley. But the company was still saddled with the crippling lease costs of the existing Embraer fleet
He also got rid of the loss making joint venture with Finnair.
It's all contaied in the Flybereports and accounts and presentations to investors still available on flybeplc.com
Yes you are right, this problem dates back to Jim(call me James) French and his stewardship of FlyBe.
Regrettably he embarked on a major expansion with huge orders from Embraer and highly expensive lease costs that effectively hobbled the airline financially.
But that is all history, only time and investment will tell if FlyBe/Connect has a future.
My thoughts are with the staff and some of the more vulnerable airports like EXT and SOU, SOU especially which is so dependent on FlyBe for its viability.