Originally Posted by
tictack67
I totally agree.
It's not as if much of this is a surprise already; the name and the aircraft type.
I wish flybe2 wel, but this is just giving the impression of dithering and does not instill any confidence just procastination
The thing is that the commercial aviation bubble is similar to the Westminster bubble. Outside of their own circles people are either unaware or simply don't care. When people look to book a flight they'll simply look at the options that are laid out in front of them at the time, and choose the one that is most convenient and / or cheapest. If Flybe or even Emerald are in the drop-down of options they're at the races, if they're not well the someone else gets the booking.
That means that if, for example you're headed for a wedding in Belfast you might want to book weeks, possibly months in advance and if you tried that today Flybe would lose out. If on the other hand it's a funeral then booking any more than a week in advance would be unusual. Through all of my business travelling life I only quite rarely found myself planning a trip more than 4 weeks ahead. So yes, the earlier flights are released the more likely people are to book, but most short haul flights aren't booked that far in advance. However if Flybe don't get their booking engine up and running by 1st. March expecting to start operations at the end of March would seem a little short notice.