First time poster, so be gentle with me for any breaches of etiquette etc...
But my user name probably tells you most of why I've been lurking on this forum for a few weeks and have now finally joined. I'm pretty much weekly going to DUS. 95% of this is Flybe rather than Lufthansa.
Anyway, I notice some of the Summer 2014 routes have gone on sale. On the one hand, this looks like a sensible measure to increase cash/working capital, but I do wonder how many people are in the position to be booking that far ahead - e.g. are the hotels and villas bookable yet?
As for the current APD offer, it's only for flights 6 months out, so it's not going to affect yield from business fares, in which case it all looks like normal commercial activity that
1- Gets some discretionary/price sensitive sales and associated cash
2- Gets some publicity on the long-term strategic goal of getting APD reduced (particuarly for regional flying)
I'm assuming FlyBe will have known this offer was coming and factored the discounts into the original price, as then actually it doesn't cost Flybe anything. It's all to do with how far in advance you book, and day/time of travel. All the loudly shouted offers are generally irrelevant to what I pay.
Regards