Originally Posted by
jamestkirk
Hopefully when it’s all over there will be some investigation into what I read in one article called the years of ‘mismanagement and misadventure’. In my opinion it’s important so the people responsible don’t get the chance to destroy another company and in by doing so put thousands out of work.
The ex staff are entitled to know the chain of events.
What would an investigation reveal that we don't already know? That flyBe was saddled with an expensive and inappropriate (jet) fleet, had higher costs than aviation peers and poor market positioning at most of its largest stations. flyBe inherited legacy costs and obligations from the various mergers and purchases that formed it, BA Connect in particular - which was so loss making that BA paid flyBe to take it. Its a shame that the airline did not thrive, but it had a huge hill to climb with the expensive fleet a millstone around its neck, the APD eating into revenue from both domestic sectors and fierce competition from major UK bases from easyJet, Ryanair, Jet2 and BA.
The decision to increase the ACMI flying operation was a move in the right direction, but even that introduced complexity adding ATRs to a Q400/E-Jet fleet. Trying to hub with Virgin at MAN was an act of desperation and always doomed to my mind. No short-haul franchise partner has ever worked for VS and there have been a few over the years.