Originally Posted by
Steviec9
Just been looking at the Sat & Sun schedules from other London airports to Dublin for October onwards, in particular LCY, STN, LGW.
It looks like Flybe will need to roster an E195 to do the Dublin runs something like this:
Sat SEN - DUB
Departing with a slot somewhere between 08:00 and 09:30 so pax arrive at Dublin 09:30 - 11:00 at very latest.
Sun DUB - SEN
Departing with a slot somewhere between 18:00 and 19:30 so pax arrive at Southend 19:30 - 21:00 at very latest.
If Flybe also considering a Friday SEN - DUB service then realistically you are maybe looking at aiming for slots departing between 18:00 and 19:30.
I don't think there is demand for the Dublin service outside of the Friday, Saturday, Sunday slots so reconfiguration of the airframes onto other legs for other days will ensure the fleet are in sky and not sitting idle on ramps, bit of a challenge to the flight ops to run optimum scenario plans now.
Will be interesting to see what they come up with but being honest if Flybe want to secure healthy loads and margins then aiming for the Fri, Sat, Sun commuter, tourist type pax will offer a pleasurable airport alternative than trucking through likes of LCY, LGW or STN.
I genuinely would like to see them cracking that Dublin route once and for all, it's got loads of demand in general but the trick for Flybe and SEN is making the whole experience make sense. Maybe a real world challenge of timing how long it would take and typically cost on average to get to Dublin from London using STN, LGW, LCY versus SEN selling the benefits in a way the passenger can relate to easily. Plus advertising needs to be right. You can't adopt the attitude of build it and they will come, that's just not going to work.