Originally Posted by
Rivet Joint
Their obsession with BHD is very very odd considering Emerald with the backing of Aer Lingus are already established. The domestic routes at SOU should have been one of their main focuses with the awful Eastern and uneconomical jets being flown by Logan.
I imagine their research/market intelligence/etc suggested that BHD/Belfast has more potential than many other airports. There is less competition from road/rail from Belfast and for day trips/overnight stays a road/rail/sail combination is thoroughly impractical. From that point of view it makes sense. I don't think flyBe banked on Emerald getting their launch together a year early, getting a UK AOC and building a reliable operation as quickly as they did. The continued operation of many of the Stobart Routes by EI mainline and BA CityFlyer probably helped Emerald and closed off opportunity for flyBe 2 as well. Now, Im not sure how much market research they really did. The route network is visibly incoherent and operationally fragile. Why fight at AMS with easyJet, KLM and BA?
flyBe were never afraid to throw good money after bad in
Pyrrhic battles. They shot themselves in the foot with poor timings, lower frequency than Emerald and much worse reliability.