Heard they(FLYBE) ARE looking at Paris,loads of routes for them to take on Low prices could be the key here.
Pause whilst I scream....
It will be a choice on this route between low fares and high frequency. The route needs frequency for the business traveller, and connections.
At the risk of being abused on here for being the ghost at the feast, can I just present an alternative viewpoint on flybe's decision to start something (hub? base? destination?) at Cardiff.
This may turn out to be one of the worst strategic decisions the airport has made for a long time.
My reason for saying this comes from many years of business and strategic planning in the airline business. One of the key profit drivers in the airline game is average sector length. I won't bore anyone on here with why that is, but it is a fact. The lower the average sector length, the better the bottom line tends to look. This is why the likes of baby, and easy, and Ryan, fly some short routes - it lowers the ASL, while routes like PRG, AGP tend to drive it up.
Now - if someone like flybe is going to start flying routes like BHD, then the opportunities for a new carrier to build a sensible network out of CWL - with nice routes like BUD, CIA etc, balanced with some short ones like BFS - get diminished.
By all means encourage flybe to do, say, CDG, BRU - but the moment they start looking at DUB, EDI, GLA, NCL, BHD/BFS etc, expect other potential low cost entrants to forget CWL as a base. If what flybe does is makes life hard for baby, and stuffs up Eastern - is that really Cardiff's gain?
What CWL really needs is someone who is committed to the place, and sees it as home, rather than just a chunk of tarmac to make a quick buck on... Who is prepared to build an easyjet style network, with long sectors balanced against short ones.
Price wars are all very well for the consumer - but they are disastrous for the industry. And flybe may very well spark off a price war (bet baby are over the moon about BHD, expect them to fight back - baby's CASK is almost certainly better than flybe's, so could drive them off it). Worst case is that baby pull off some short routes (because flybe are on them) and that could compromise their whole Cardiff operation. That would be in no-one's interest, least of all Cardiff's.
There is a place for flybe at Cardiff. But the airport would do well to look at what is best for the airport in the long run, rather than just trying to get someone to use the place. My guess is that these routes will run with aircraft based elsewhere, which will vanish like the morning mist in time....