OK I'll bite!
Phileas... LOL ... FlyBE, whichever way you dress it up ... are a LoCo airline ... "airline of Choice" my @ss
All I ask is civil treatment at all stages of my journey from the time I leave my front door to the time I arrive at the front door of my destination and in this respect Flybe meet my expectations...
dj6... What would Flybe do with a 150 seat aircraft in November when Malaga loses its appeal ?
From what I have seen year round, the load factors are pretty consistent; as I said among the expats out here Flybe are not seen as a bucket and spade outfit. Also, many of the pax on the SOU-AGP service use AGP because there is no other choice. They live in towns and villages well inland from the coast having moved there because of what at the time was a daily GRX-LGW service operated by Monarch.
When Monarch pulled the plug in 2007 under mounting opposition from the Ryanair dirty tricks department, these folks including myself were stuck with a possible 2 hour journey to Malaga and that in addition to an equally long journey 'home' from LGW. So even if Flybe dont meeet the standards of a traditional legacy airline, SOUas an airport suddenly becomes a good option. Again for these folks the only other option was GRX-STN until Ryan pulled the plug on that route too, but who the hell wants to fly into Stansted if they live on the Central South Coast?
hampshireandy...What other choice is there from SOU!??
Obviously there is no alternative so Airline of Choice is appropriate!
adfly...the convenience of flying from smaller 'local' airports to many of the passengers and even the 2+2 layout of the Embraer's is probably enough for many to actually consider them as their 'airline of choice'.
Exactly my point. For us Inlanders the availability of smaller local airports is definitely a plus. Monarch and Ryanair pulled out of GRX when subsidies were removed or refused, leaving GRX with internal flights only. After a long period in the doldrums GRX wwent International again; BA Cityflier announced a new service LON-GRX, great we thought... twenty minute drive to GRX then away... unfortunately to my mind, their choice of London airport was completely and utterly wrong... LCY... No matter what mode of transport one uses from the UK central South Coast, LCY is a minimum of two and a half hours away and involves multiple train and tube changes during peak travel times. LCY is fine if you live in London or Essex but to everyone else its a waste of space...
Selfish I know but a service from SOU to GRX (not operated by Ryan or Easy) would be my ideal... max travel time at both ends 30 minutes by car or taxi... hell I'd even cosider using Monarch on that route...