flybe have a solid customer base in the regions and a highly defendable product.
Well if you are going to quote directly from the "flybereallyisok.com" website, at least change the words around a bit and avoid accountant-babble!
What you don't see, is that margins are incredibly thin, and yield management is everything (as flybe only recently realised, it seems; whilst Easyjet were managing their yield on a minute-by-minute basis, flybe were doing it on a daily basis up until a few years ago). It doesn't take much to go from triumph to disaster.
However flybe have adapted very well to the LCC model on the commercial side. Ops and Crewing are apparently still disaster areas, but then they always have been - under-resourced for many years now. That side of the business is going to be a major challenge in the days ahead. I imagine the rashers will become well acquainted with the insides of various hotels, despite what they might think about "scheduling agreements". Roster stability is a distant dream, and has been for years.
Have to say that I really rate flybe, though. They have done very well in a very short time. Jim French has demonstrated that an ex- baggage handler can outwit the BA management without trying very hard, and he remains an approachable, honest and genuinely concerned manager (inside the constraints of commercial reality of course). I would go back there in a flash if I needed a new job. There might be one or two muppets in the company, but overall they are a solid bunch. Far better than the BACON management appear to be.
Anyway... back to the pleasant smell of bacon sizzling nicely on the barbie...
