FlyBE - 5
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Iom Bhx
One of the main reasons for the delays on this route of late is mainly down to the work that is going on in the IOM, and the creation of a starter strip and taxiway to the 08 end.
Due to the work, and the machinery around the runway, the landing distance can be shortened. Plus, with the wet weather we have had also, it causes many problems with the EMB145 used on the route when the runway is wet.
When the EMB145 can't land here, Flybe will try and put a Q400 on the route, and they usually arent available until a few hours later.
Hope this helps
Due to the work, and the machinery around the runway, the landing distance can be shortened. Plus, with the wet weather we have had also, it causes many problems with the EMB145 used on the route when the runway is wet.
When the EMB145 can't land here, Flybe will try and put a Q400 on the route, and they usually arent available until a few hours later.
Hope this helps
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Abz Scs
Does anyone have an indication of Flybe's interest in the IAC oil contract to the Shetland, and if so what aircraft type would be proposed given the limitations of Scatsta ? ? ?
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: A different hotel to the one crewing told me...
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Were those the same Bacon days where the company was losing £40 million a year?
oap
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Summer flights will be available end Nov/beginning Dec.
I've just noticed Brussels has been given the chop from Exeter. When did that happen? I'm guessing low loads were the cause. I thought it would be popular.
I've just noticed Brussels has been given the chop from Exeter. When did that happen? I'm guessing low loads were the cause. I thought it would be popular.
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Haven't a clue - There are few delays and cancellation encountered due to lack of crew.....indeed Flybe were unable to assist with Zoom crew because they were full. Maybe it has happened a couple of times like any other carrier but its not a regular thing as your comments could be interpreted as suggesting.
Jackdaw - What are you doing when your sat around all day........watching these planes that are supposedly parked up for hours? Flybe have maintenance hangars at several airports so have you possibly considered that maybe, just maybe, the aircraft are having routing maintenance? Or even that by keeping a couple of aircraft on the ground might save the company money compared to operating flights with limited passenger numbers??? The difference here is Flybe have just announced profits - BACON didn't but I am not getting into that argument - we must simply stop comparing the two as they are both different.
Flybe are not grounding planes like BA, FR and EZY this winter are they.......so having a couple of planes sat having a rest for a bit is hardly big news compared to what other carriers are doing.
devon_guy - Yes sadly this was pulled. Local businesses made a huge fuss about getting the route but have not really used it since it started! Shame because I hope that this has not deterred the airline from listening to their local community.......
Jackdaw - What are you doing when your sat around all day........watching these planes that are supposedly parked up for hours? Flybe have maintenance hangars at several airports so have you possibly considered that maybe, just maybe, the aircraft are having routing maintenance? Or even that by keeping a couple of aircraft on the ground might save the company money compared to operating flights with limited passenger numbers??? The difference here is Flybe have just announced profits - BACON didn't but I am not getting into that argument - we must simply stop comparing the two as they are both different.
Flybe are not grounding planes like BA, FR and EZY this winter are they.......so having a couple of planes sat having a rest for a bit is hardly big news compared to what other carriers are doing.
devon_guy - Yes sadly this was pulled. Local businesses made a huge fuss about getting the route but have not really used it since it started! Shame because I hope that this has not deterred the airline from listening to their local community.......
Join Date: Apr 2007
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Bull$hit cloud1. BE are grounding planes and pulling routes left right and center this winter. Why deny it 
But thats the good news. BE understand that empty flights = losses. Old saying - Turnover=vanity, profit=sanity. good on yer Frenchie Jim
Be will be around when the 
expansionists are dead.
But thats the good news. BE understand that empty flights = losses. Old saying - Turnover=vanity, profit=sanity. good on yer Frenchie Jim Be will be around when the expansionists are dead.
Gender Faculty Specialist
IOMSpotter, Flybe are not grounding any aeroplanes. I think you need to check your source of information!
They may be pulling a few of the less profitable routes but this is to allow them to consolidate existing routes which are making money. And that is from the horses mouth so to speak.
They may be pulling a few of the less profitable routes but this is to allow them to consolidate existing routes which are making money. And that is from the horses mouth so to speak.
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Flybe capacity
IOMSpotter - Flybe have not grounded any planes this winter. They have taken out some middle of the day capacity which they confirmed as part of their results announcement (8 Sept). They can do that without major disturbance to routes because 84% of capacity is deployed on routes with a frequency of 2 or more a day- up to 9 a day I think. Thats unlike RYR for instance where 81% of their routes is on 1 a day or less. For RYR if capacity comes out, routes come out.
Flybe results announcement said they would grow by 6-8% this winter, 10-12% over the year. Numbers similair to those announced by EZY at todays analyst briefing.
Flybe results announcement said they would grow by 6-8% this winter, 10-12% over the year. Numbers similair to those announced by EZY at todays analyst briefing.
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Thanks cloud1 for the reassurance -I guess I must have been unlucky a few times to encounter this.
As you posted on the Eastern thread:
I don't take offence at all. I welcome the debate and your informed contribution (and others) helps me understand why occasionally I'm stuck on the ground. I am only a humble SLF having spent some 30 years plus flying typically 80 sectors per year, a mix of puddle jumping from the IoM and many journeys beyond. During that time I've travelled with many airlines long haul and short. I also hold a private pilot's licence which includes an IR. This is not a boast, merely stated to try to show you that I'm not some Fx wanabee type.
My threepennyworth:
- FlyBe's integration of BACon was a huge challenge, but is now seen to have been successful (and a brilliant deal, by the way). But during that integration process punctuality suffered, and FlyBe gained a poor reputation among former BACon pax.
- With integration complete punctuality is much better, but any delay is jumped on to support the arguement that FlyBe's record is poor.
- FlyBe operate to a number of locations (IoM, CI) where fog is not unknown and these inevitable delays or cancellations lower the reported on-time statistics. There is no opportunity to balance this, by say gaining a credit for early arrival, because the entire aviation infrastructure (ATC, handling agents etc) are not geared up to deal with anything more than a 5 minute early off blocks time.
- Aircraft are worked as much as possible (maximising asset use is not soley the preserve of FlyBe - the LoCos pioneered it and legacy carriers such as BA have been quick to follow). This means there is less slack in the timetable if something goes wrong
- This high airframe utilisation means that the availibility of backup aircraft is limited. So an more than one airframe going "tech" requires some juggling of the schedules to solve the problem. This means that a flight may be delayed because an aircraft has been "borrowed" to solve a problem elsewhere. This spreads the delay around the system in such a way that all flights can be completed that day, but means that more flights may be affected. That in turn means more flights are delayed. Although the passengers do get to where they are going this approach certainly doesn't flatter the statistics.
So where am I going with this? Well basically FlyBe are a profitable airline at a time when the airline business in general is not. They do this by keeping fares low (but not ridiculously so) and they attract more punters to fly. They keep the costs down and cut out as much as they can. Inevitably then overall service suffers when something breaks.
In short you get what you pay for and the days of measuring an airline's performance only by its punctuality are sadly now gone!
As you posted on the Eastern thread:
There is no point in arguing with you because you already have an opinion which you will stick to based on 'experience' without actually looking at the bigger picture, and I feel pitty for you in that respect because you claim to have knowledge about the aviation industry. It is nothing personal and please do not take offense, but it is clear that there are many users of this forum that fall into a particular category and it isn't pretty - namely 'one or two flights and they know the whole operation'. You may be an experienced traveler but when your flying on that one flight just think about the other 450 operating that day
My threepennyworth:
- FlyBe's integration of BACon was a huge challenge, but is now seen to have been successful (and a brilliant deal, by the way). But during that integration process punctuality suffered, and FlyBe gained a poor reputation among former BACon pax.
- With integration complete punctuality is much better, but any delay is jumped on to support the arguement that FlyBe's record is poor.
- FlyBe operate to a number of locations (IoM, CI) where fog is not unknown and these inevitable delays or cancellations lower the reported on-time statistics. There is no opportunity to balance this, by say gaining a credit for early arrival, because the entire aviation infrastructure (ATC, handling agents etc) are not geared up to deal with anything more than a 5 minute early off blocks time.
- Aircraft are worked as much as possible (maximising asset use is not soley the preserve of FlyBe - the LoCos pioneered it and legacy carriers such as BA have been quick to follow). This means there is less slack in the timetable if something goes wrong
- This high airframe utilisation means that the availibility of backup aircraft is limited. So an more than one airframe going "tech" requires some juggling of the schedules to solve the problem. This means that a flight may be delayed because an aircraft has been "borrowed" to solve a problem elsewhere. This spreads the delay around the system in such a way that all flights can be completed that day, but means that more flights may be affected. That in turn means more flights are delayed. Although the passengers do get to where they are going this approach certainly doesn't flatter the statistics.
So where am I going with this? Well basically FlyBe are a profitable airline at a time when the airline business in general is not. They do this by keeping fares low (but not ridiculously so) and they attract more punters to fly. They keep the costs down and cut out as much as they can. Inevitably then overall service suffers when something breaks.
In short you get what you pay for and the days of measuring an airline's performance only by its punctuality are sadly now gone!
Join Date: Jun 2005
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In response to the reply about BE pullng the BRU route from EXT, it's sad they didn't give it a bit longer. It was never very well advertised and for businessmen the time was a bit pants, only one lateish evening departure a day. Maybe if they had done an early morning and evening departure like the CDG route it might have been more successful?
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"Countless" aircraft (145s I expect) sat around all day. Haven't laughed so hard in ages - Thank you.
You must have been the BACON accountant with such limited counting ability.
As for the winter, no a/c groundings (at least for no more than a couple of sectors), as the company is only removing the equivalent of 4 lines of flying from the winter programme as compared to the summer programme. Barely more than 5% of the flying capacity and nothing like the scale proposed by a certain gobby lo-co.
You must have been the BACON accountant with such limited counting ability.
As for the winter, no a/c groundings (at least for no more than a couple of sectors), as the company is only removing the equivalent of 4 lines of flying from the winter programme as compared to the summer programme. Barely more than 5% of the flying capacity and nothing like the scale proposed by a certain gobby lo-co.
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Flybe suspends expansion plans as passenger figures decline
Flybe has decided to suspend plans that would have seen the United Kingdom’s largest regional airline expand by significant proportions and, according to a report in The Guardian, the carrier will instead proceed to cut back on existing capacity. The Exeter-based airline plans to decrease its passenger capacity by around 400,000 seats over the course of the winter travel season.
Jim French, Flybe’s chairperson, pointed out that the airline is noticing softening demand among business and corporate passengers. But the airline executive was quick to add that none of this “scares” Flybe, since the slowdown is not of dramatic proportions. Yet Flybe’s original plan to augment the carrier’s capacity by 16 percent has not been put on hold. Most of the major cutbacks will be to key continental European destinations, such as Brussels and Paris, as well as Frankfurt.
Despite the expected decline in the number of business passengers, Flybe notes that around 45 percent of its passengers use the carrier to fly on official business trips. This may very well serve as a blessing for the airline, as companies-such as Ryanair-which rely much more heavily on leisurely travelers are in for a bumpier ride. The current economic downturn, credit crunch and high petrol prices tend to turn people off taking a vacation and encourage them to stay closer to home, even while many company employees will continue to travel on business, despite the economic woes.
Jim French, Flybe’s chairperson, pointed out that the airline is noticing softening demand among business and corporate passengers. But the airline executive was quick to add that none of this “scares” Flybe, since the slowdown is not of dramatic proportions. Yet Flybe’s original plan to augment the carrier’s capacity by 16 percent has not been put on hold. Most of the major cutbacks will be to key continental European destinations, such as Brussels and Paris, as well as Frankfurt.
Despite the expected decline in the number of business passengers, Flybe notes that around 45 percent of its passengers use the carrier to fly on official business trips. This may very well serve as a blessing for the airline, as companies-such as Ryanair-which rely much more heavily on leisurely travelers are in for a bumpier ride. The current economic downturn, credit crunch and high petrol prices tend to turn people off taking a vacation and encourage them to stay closer to home, even while many company employees will continue to travel on business, despite the economic woes.
Dwindling pax numbers also confirmed after yesterdays "drama":
A passenger plane from Scotland was at the centre of a drama after developing engine problems as it approached Southampton Airport this afternoon.
The pilot radioed for help after shutting down the right hand engine.
Emergency services were scrambled into action when the call came through just before 2pm but the Flybe plane, carrying 27 passengers and four crew, landed safely.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue sent four appliances from Eastleigh, headquarters and St Mary's.
They stood but the airport's own firefighters dealt with the situation.
An airport spokesperson said: "Flybe flight BE394 travelling from Inverness experienced technical problems this afternoon.
The pilot radioed for help after shutting down the right hand engine.
Emergency services were scrambled into action when the call came through just before 2pm but the Flybe plane, carrying 27 passengers and four crew, landed safely.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue sent four appliances from Eastleigh, headquarters and St Mary's.
They stood but the airport's own firefighters dealt with the situation.
An airport spokesperson said: "Flybe flight BE394 travelling from Inverness experienced technical problems this afternoon.
Join Date: May 2002
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Maude! Are you sure its not your counting ability? At a weekend at most bases you need two hands to count the Q4s parked up on advertising duty!!
You never see the 195 of course, unless the Hangar door has been left open
You never see the 195 of course, unless the Hangar door has been left open