Flybe
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 409
Likes: 0
From: Costa Del Solent
On sale from today:
Exeter - Norwich and Bergerac
Southampton - Faro and in France, Angers (Loire Valley) and Avignon (Provence)
Norwich - Exeter and Bordeaux
Leeds Bradford - Bergerac
These compliment the other new services for summer 2006 announced over the last few months:
Belfast - Manchester
Exeter - Manchester
Southampton - Palma
Norwich - Murcia
Norwich - Guernsey
Norwich - Faro
The schedule will also see increased frequencies on many of the domestic services as well as the return of the usual summer only services to Brest, Perpignan, La Rochelle, etc. The Southampton to Chambéry service will also for the first time continue operation into the summer.
Exeter - Norwich and Bergerac
Southampton - Faro and in France, Angers (Loire Valley) and Avignon (Provence)
Norwich - Exeter and Bordeaux
Leeds Bradford - Bergerac
These compliment the other new services for summer 2006 announced over the last few months:
Belfast - Manchester
Exeter - Manchester
Southampton - Palma
Norwich - Murcia
Norwich - Guernsey
Norwich - Faro
The schedule will also see increased frequencies on many of the domestic services as well as the return of the usual summer only services to Brest, Perpignan, La Rochelle, etc. The Southampton to Chambéry service will also for the first time continue operation into the summer.
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 959
Likes: 0
From: Euroland
The Q400 is not unlike the BAe ATP... the product of an ailing company, desperate to get a new aircraft into production, who simply took a successful design and stretched it (a lot). Add new avionics and systems and hey presto, a new aircraft!
However the ATP was a disaster... we used to call it the Advanced Technical Problem. It was so bad that BAe Prestwick sent a brace of engineers up to our hangar on permanent deployment, to try and sort them out. Being as horrible as it was, it found few customers. The same was true of the Q400 until flybe managed to achieve some level of reliability - took them quite a while though.
The Q400 is similar. Take a great aircraft, the Dash 8-300, and stretch it, add lots of new bits etc. Trouble was, it was all done rather badly and it wasn't long before the first batch were being returned to Canada for "re-manufacturing" - in other words, adding all the metal they removed to save weight, which, it turns out, was needed to prevent the structure from bending! New stringers above the cockpit area, plus some wing mods, are two I seem to recall. The process took three months per aircraft. No wonder SAS got so bent out of shape over it!
Bottom line, the Q400 is built to a (very cheap) price, and therefore not very strong, and many of the components not very reliable. I lost count of the number of times we would push back, all would go dark, and the crew would announce that they were having to reset all the computers... or the F/O would turn all the lights on for his pre-flight checks, and promptly flatten the battery. And then there was the Q400 that needed a new generator after less than 100 hours... in fact quite a lot of parts were replaced after very few hours indeed.
Expect to see a lot more returns to base...
However the ATP was a disaster... we used to call it the Advanced Technical Problem. It was so bad that BAe Prestwick sent a brace of engineers up to our hangar on permanent deployment, to try and sort them out. Being as horrible as it was, it found few customers. The same was true of the Q400 until flybe managed to achieve some level of reliability - took them quite a while though.
The Q400 is similar. Take a great aircraft, the Dash 8-300, and stretch it, add lots of new bits etc. Trouble was, it was all done rather badly and it wasn't long before the first batch were being returned to Canada for "re-manufacturing" - in other words, adding all the metal they removed to save weight, which, it turns out, was needed to prevent the structure from bending! New stringers above the cockpit area, plus some wing mods, are two I seem to recall. The process took three months per aircraft. No wonder SAS got so bent out of shape over it!
Bottom line, the Q400 is built to a (very cheap) price, and therefore not very strong, and many of the components not very reliable. I lost count of the number of times we would push back, all would go dark, and the crew would announce that they were having to reset all the computers... or the F/O would turn all the lights on for his pre-flight checks, and promptly flatten the battery. And then there was the Q400 that needed a new generator after less than 100 hours... in fact quite a lot of parts were replaced after very few hours indeed.
Expect to see a lot more returns to base...
Joined: Mar 1999
Posts: 470
Likes: 0
From: Ashbourne Co Meath Ireland
Expect to see a lot more returns to base...
It's pressurised, has good speeds, reasonable space, the noise levels are not anything like as bad as some of the older TP's ( The F27 it replaced comes to mind
), and it appears that if it's working reliably, the direct operating cost is also not unreasonable, so it's useful for skinny point to point sectors, and Flybe do seem to have found quite a few of them to use it on.OK, the gear design makes it a pig to land smoothly, and I suspect the length means that it has to be treated with due respect to avoid tail strikes.
They were just coming on stream when I moved on from ramp work at DUB, the one thing that seemed to be an issue at that time was APU's, most often they'd arrive in with it unservicable, and from memory, Servisair did Flybe no favours with their handling, several aircraft were damaged by SA using incorrect GPU's on the aircraft, which did damage, as the wrong GPU's didn't have current limiters, so fried bits that were not capable of taking the current drawn. Flybe had provided GPU's, but that didn't always mean that the relevant people used them, any old 28V capable GPU got dragged to stand, and some of them had seen better days!
I just hope that whatever gremlin it is that's causing the problems has been identified, and is now being well and truly stuffed back down it's hole.
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 959
Likes: 0
From: Euroland
several aircraft were damaged by SA using incorrect GPU's on the aircraft, which did damage, as the wrong GPU's didn't have current limiters, so fried bits that were not capable of taking the current drawn.
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 937
Likes: 0
From: Isle Du Cyber
Dead Dash
The Jersey Dash arrived back from Sou at lunch time today the 30th then was unservicable and missed out the Bristol rotation and the next Southampton, was this another hyd problem or just another Dash 400 problem???
Just as well the good old work horse the BAE146 stepped in and popped up N862 to Bristol and back to try and keep some passengers happy.
Maybe the company need to get more BAE146s instead of more Dash 400s???.
Just as well the good old work horse the BAE146 stepped in and popped up N862 to Bristol and back to try and keep some passengers happy.
Maybe the company need to get more BAE146s instead of more Dash 400s???.
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 147
Likes: 0
From: Outside the EU
Flybe to charge for hold baggage
Lead 'piece' on Radio 4's 'You and Yours'. Flybe is to introduce a £2 fee for hold babbage whilst reducing fares by £1. Hold allowance per item will go up to 25kg but the overall emphasis was to encourage carry-on bags which will attract an increase in weight allowance - no mention on size, of course. The excuse given was to drive down (don't managers just love that term) ground handling costs - and p..s off a lot of potential customers, IMHO. Rutter quoted the 1.5M passengers now flying the routes out of Southampton, the vast majority of which need more than hand luggage to see them through a season in the second home au continent.
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 473
Likes: 2
From: UK
Reminds me of a drowning man thrashing about in desperation in the water just before he slips under...
The logic behind the move makes sense. Flybe fly a far higher proportion of business passengers than most UK LCC. This will be beneficial for them.
Joined: Oct 2002
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 8,207
Likes: 349
From: London UK
......whilst reducing fares by £1.
If Flybe are not careful they will get into trouble with the Advertising Standards Agency over a claim that cannot be substantiated.
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 1,621
Likes: 1
From: Ireland
Seems to me like a reasonably rational implementation of what MO'L on his side has been going on about for ages.
In principle I can see that if I have a checked bag it's more cost for the airline. If I anticipate bringing one, I can live with paying the pound extra, in exchange for the pound off when I'm travelling with only carry-on.
But the devil will be in the detail. It's one thing to say "sorry sir, your carry-on's a kilo too heavy, it'll have to go as checked baggage," but it'll be a bit tougher to say, "sorry sir, your carry-on's a kilo too heavy, it'll have to go as checked baggage, that'll be four quid, please."
In principle I can see that if I have a checked bag it's more cost for the airline. If I anticipate bringing one, I can live with paying the pound extra, in exchange for the pound off when I'm travelling with only carry-on.
But the devil will be in the detail. It's one thing to say "sorry sir, your carry-on's a kilo too heavy, it'll have to go as checked baggage," but it'll be a bit tougher to say, "sorry sir, your carry-on's a kilo too heavy, it'll have to go as checked baggage, that'll be four quid, please."
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 114
Likes: 0
From: Tracy Island
I am glad that I am not Flybe cabin crew,watching what some pax manage to blag through check in as hand baggage even when the hold is free.
Also will the d8 be in trim if there is an almost empty boot?,if not then they will still have to pay loaders to put ballast in and burn extra gas humping it around.
Sounds like an attempt to pay even less for ground handling than please their customers.
Also at check in, thats hold baggage sir,no its not ,yes it is bla bla bla.....
Also will the d8 be in trim if there is an almost empty boot?,if not then they will still have to pay loaders to put ballast in and burn extra gas humping it around.
Sounds like an attempt to pay even less for ground handling than please their customers.
Also at check in, thats hold baggage sir,no its not ,yes it is bla bla bla.....
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 310
Likes: 0
From: Perm any one from 3 !
While I am normally quite a fan of FlyBe (and the turnaround they have achieved) I am uncomfortable with this one ....
I normally have absolutely no idea how much baggage (or how many bags) I am going to have at the time I book.
I have insufficient patience to go through a negotiation and payment everytime I check in (and object to be charged extra because I couldn't estimate it at the time of booking).
I assume I will now book at least one bag, when I book the flight (to hopefully reduce the nonsense at check-in) which means my fare has gone up by UK£1 !!
I forsee check-in nightmares for all - I had to read their email three times to understand the combinations !!
I normally have absolutely no idea how much baggage (or how many bags) I am going to have at the time I book.
I have insufficient patience to go through a negotiation and payment everytime I check in (and object to be charged extra because I couldn't estimate it at the time of booking).
I assume I will now book at least one bag, when I book the flight (to hopefully reduce the nonsense at check-in) which means my fare has gone up by UK£1 !!
I forsee check-in nightmares for all - I had to read their email three times to understand the combinations !!
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 409
Likes: 0
From: Costa Del Solent
Kak Klaxon,
Think you've got it in one, mate. 
There is no way a bag of 10kg size will fit in a dash locker, so the cabin crew will have to take on this extra unpaid task of 'loading' the fwd baggage hold with all these oversize bags, lengthening the turnaround, possibly delaying the flight.
T=
Sounds like an attempt to pay even less for ground handling than please their customers.
There is no way a bag of 10kg size will fit in a dash locker, so the cabin crew will have to take on this extra unpaid task of 'loading' the fwd baggage hold with all these oversize bags, lengthening the turnaround, possibly delaying the flight.
T=
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,946
Likes: 0
From: Coventry
Well, for once, JF has got the edge on MOL.
But I can see a few practicalities to work out in addition to the excellent points already made above.
How are they going to levy this charge? Cash, cheque or card? What if the punter has spent their last euros, or whatever?
I can see some long queues at check-in, come Feb 1st, especially as some will be pre-charge, and presumably won't have to pay, and others won't.
Afaik, Flybe operate a 30 minute check-in. I've had a few close shaves in my time, but if a passenger turns up 35 minutes before his flight, only to find a big queue of people having to pay for their luggage, would any line manager dare to shut him out? Techinically, aren't pax supposed to have cleared check in by the closure time, rather than just be in the queue?
But I can see a few practicalities to work out in addition to the excellent points already made above.
How are they going to levy this charge? Cash, cheque or card? What if the punter has spent their last euros, or whatever?
I can see some long queues at check-in, come Feb 1st, especially as some will be pre-charge, and presumably won't have to pay, and others won't.
Afaik, Flybe operate a 30 minute check-in. I've had a few close shaves in my time, but if a passenger turns up 35 minutes before his flight, only to find a big queue of people having to pay for their luggage, would any line manager dare to shut him out? Techinically, aren't pax supposed to have cleared check in by the closure time, rather than just be in the queue?