FlyBe - 6

[Skipness One Echo]

(S)he works for Eastern......

[SecondDog]

I heard the Flybe management have been for a guided tour of Aldergrove.... What chance a reactionary move from them for a change? The more I think about it, the more viable Aldergrove seems for the vast majority of their BHD routemap.

Anyone got an inside track?

[Cloud1]

If BE do go to Aldergrove, I would expect a couple of routes. However to move the entire operation would involve a huge amount of expense, and either more job losses or relocation of a lot of staff. It is not just a crew base, but Flybe have their own ground staff, engineers and customer service teams at BHD. I think it would be an awful move as they are primarily targeting business travels so the airport closest to the city makes most sense. I am sure even this 'new' management team can see that

[EI-BUD]

I would bet my house that BE will not get onto EZY BFS routes directly, but the routes that are not head to head with EZY totally feasible, new routes for BFS and big holes in the routes map from BHD. CWL, EMA welcome back. ABZ welcome back. LBA ... well able to compete with Jet2. SOU, EXT plus winter ski routes.

LGW, MAN, BHX, GLA , EDI, NCL will be wise to stay at BHD unless they want EI to snap them up.

[SecondDog]

LGW, MAN, BHX, GLA , EDI, NCL will be wise to stay at BHD unless they want EI to snap them up.

I think that is the plan for EI anyway tbh, the hushed winds that blow through BFS said that EI were planning a much bigger hub from BHD than they had at BFS and that it was being introduced as a relatively small affair with gradual route announcements to avoid upsetting BE right out of the gate. (I can only assume that BHD management are trying to improve their routemap but also covering potential withdrawals by BE as a result)

Thats what makes me think BE @BFS is becoming more viable for non competing routes with EZY

[RoyHudd]

MAN

Is the base at MAN cutting back?

[BHD2BFS]

I actually don't think Flybe moving to BFS wouldnt really affect there pax numbers, ok they would be stupid to go up against EZY but they have some strong routes, Dundee Aberdeen and Inverness all have onward connections with loganair, SOU have cruise pax, EXT is flybe home turf, there is plenty of space to compete with jet2 on LBA. And Cardiff and East mids have no other airline in NI. Plus a big thing is that if they leave BHD EIR could never replace their whole network, they don't have enough aircraft, Flybe have 7/8 aircraft at BHD so EIR just couldn't do it

[davidjohnson6]

Dundee Aberdeen and Inverness all have onward connections with loganair

I don't wish to comment on Aberdeen or Inverness, but Dundee is absolutely tiddly - it's not a place to go looking for connecting flights !

[SecondDog]

I actually don't think Flybe moving to BFS wouldnt really affect there pax numbers, ok they would be stupid to go up against EZY but they have some strong routes, Dundee Aberdeen and Inverness all have onward connections with loganair, SOU have cruise pax, EXT is flybe home turf, there is plenty of space to compete with jet2 on LBA. And Cardiff and East mids have no other airline in NI. Plus a big thing is that if they leave BHD EIR could never replace their whole network, they don't have enough aircraft, Flybe have 7/8 aircraft at BHD so EIR just couldn't do it

Why would moving up to BFS with the same routemap mean they were suddenly going up against EZY? Sure they are already doing LGW et al from BHD. Surely there wouldn't be any difference really? Plus BFS would gain all those smaller business routes too. Win Win!

[BHD2BFS]

I have heard that LGW may be dropped from BHD, which means if BE move to BFS, EI will just take the LGW pax that prefer BHD over BFS
I think I will get shot down for saying this but I really think BE could move to BFS. We have learnt over the years that Pax pick airlines over airport so if they move the pax will follow

[shamrock7seal]

No chance of a BOH base then anytime soon.

All the aircraft from the LGW base, are they going to SEN?

[Otto Throttle]

If BE were to relocate to a muddy field down a potholed farm track in darkest Antrim, at least 25% of their crew would be unable to make the obligatory 60 minute callout from standby. Given their difficulty in recruiting cabin crew in particular, even at the best of times, they're going to need to block book a lot more hotel rooms for all the night stopping crew to ensure they can even operate.

Not that common sense would prevent them doing something daft.

[redED]

90 minute report time.

[BHD2BFS]

I doubt they have difficulty recruiting cabin crew, they have better perks than a lot of other airlines out there and the amount of people who are unemployed at the moment I am sure they won't find it hard to find new ones

[vectisman]

Shamrock Seal
They are only removing the single Dash 8 aircraft that is based at Gatwick.The route to Nantes I believe is also ceasing in October. All other flights will be continuing as they are operated to and from other bases.
V.

[OltonPete]

GLA-CWL/e-petition/BHX-EDI

monkey.tennis

The booking engine is still showing double daily on Monday and Friday in September with an early morning departure and back to double daily in winter (weekdays). Is something about to change, it would be a bit of a blow for Cardiff?

With the next 175 due soon and the Manchester - Brussels aircraft released I would have thought that would be sufficient in the short-term but could be wrong.

BHX-EDI for winter is showing the afternoon Q400 switched to the 195 making it along with Glasgow all jet. The timetable still showing the 175 switching from BHX-GLA to BHX-STR and the morning 195 BHX-BHD moved to BHX-GLA . BHD also sees the Q400 on the afternoon and evening BHX based rotations, which I wonder if this has anything to do with easyjet starting BFS-BHX this winter? Currently 7 x 195 changing to 4 x 195 and 3x Q400 for winter.

"e-petition" I received an e-mail from flybe today inviting me to "e-sign" a ready made memo to my MP asking for a APD to be re-thought.

All I had to do was add my postcode and a picture of my MP popped up with her e-mail address and there is also a field to add your own comments. Certainly made it easy for those bothered.

Pete

[mathers_wales_uk]

Cardiff to Glasgow operates up to 2 x daily at present for the Summer

Morning GLA-CWL-GLA operates M _ _ T F S _
Evening GLA-CWL-GLA operates M T W T F _ S

At present the Winter timetable is showing

Morning GLA-CWL-GLA operates M T W T F S _
Evening GLA-CWL-GLA operates M T W T F _ S

I have longed for Flybe to open a base at Cardiff and it has been believed by many a crew it was only to be a matter of time and was even hinted by Flybe themselves a few years back.

[CabinCrewe]

The GLA-CWL-CDG should really be decoupled and made direct

[mathers_wales_uk]

I guess you mean GLA-CDG direct Cabin Crew.

It is hard to monitor the performance of the Glasgow route from Cardiff as the summer holidays can offer a lot of transit passengers CDG-GLA with leisure passengers likely booking in advance.

I believe Flybe are reluctant however to opt for a GLA-CDG direct service as they did a similar move with the BHD-CWL-CDG which operated twice daily before switching it to GLA. The loads to my knowledge were not satisfactory on the direct BHD-CDG and believe it now operates BHD-EXT-CDG.

The CWL-CDG schedule did not suit the business traveller as the aircraft departed CWL at 08:50 and returned into CWL at 12:35 this is why it wasn't really a hit with the business comunity and got axed appart for Saturdays.

The afternoon CWL-CDG departs CWL at 15:50 and returns at 19:35 but is not operational on Saturdays.

Being a non based destination it is quite hard for CWL and appart from the EDI schedule and the GLA schedule when it operates 2 x daily the other routes are not suitable for business travellers.

CWL-BHD operates 1 x daily a/c arrives CWL at 11:30 and departs CWL at 11:55 (Monday to Friday).

With the withdrawal of bmibaby from CWL offering a daily 148 seats on the service you would have thought Flybe would have added capacity.

If Flybe had a 2 x a/c based at Cardiff it would allow for a more business friendly CWL-CDG departure and the same for CWL-BHD.

The AM & PM flights to GLA & EDI could remain operated by their respected bases and the CWL a/c could operate the afternoon EDI.

(I can only dream)

[EI-BUD]

I believe Flybe are reluctant however to opt for a GLA-CDG direct service as they did a similar move with the BHD-CWL-CDG which operated twice daily before switching it to GLA. The loads to my knowledge were not satisfactory on the direct BHD-CDG and believe it now operates BHD-EXT-CDG.

We have a daily easyJet flight to CDG this has been the case for many years. Though the same season that Flybe entered the BHD CDG route, Aer Lingus launched a daily flight from BFS. easyJet increased ferequency to 9 per week so in fact we now went from Belfast Paris market of 7 flights a week 23. So little wonder Flybe were not satisfied with the performance.

Add to this winter 2007 and summer 2008 were challenging especially in Belfast as wely had the flood of capacity on the Belfast London route with the arrival of Ryanair and Aer Lingus, consequently traffic on London routes overall grew significantly and it could be argued that this attracted passengers who alternatively might have been flying on breaks to other cities including Paris.