BIRMINGHAM - 6
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There was a lot of information in their financial report prior to the network restructure.
What has surprised me is that the Spanish routes are day time flights. With Flybe crews allegedly working fewer hours than other airlines would the med routes have been better as late evening or night flights? This would have allowed more city destinations in the day and increase both aircraft and crew working hours up to what we are lead to believe is average for UK airlines.
Hopefully we will see more new routes soon.
Are there any other domestic routes which could work from BHX? I think BE have them pretty much covered??
What has surprised me is that the Spanish routes are day time flights. With Flybe crews allegedly working fewer hours than other airlines would the med routes have been better as late evening or night flights? This would have allowed more city destinations in the day and increase both aircraft and crew working hours up to what we are lead to believe is average for UK airlines.
Hopefully we will see more new routes soon.
Are there any other domestic routes which could work from BHX? I think BE have them pretty much covered??
Are there any other domestic routes which could work from BHX? I think BE have them pretty much covered??
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ATNotts
My source is CAPA
Put simply (is there any other way) Flybe is/was Europe's least productive carrier based on CASK, obviously their route/base closure program is designed to address this and yes they are less productive than SAS. Of course cost is only part of the equation, if you can get a premium price in the way that BA can from LHR then it matters not or less....but Flybe don't have that option, they have to get the flying hours per pilot up, er try near double and fill the aircraft and they have what 50 less seats to recover that cost from on med routes, in a word not a chance of that happening. Thankfully they have the Finnair contract without which.............
Put simply (is there any other way) Flybe is/was Europe's least productive carrier based on CASK, obviously their route/base closure program is designed to address this and yes they are less productive than SAS. Of course cost is only part of the equation, if you can get a premium price in the way that BA can from LHR then it matters not or less....but Flybe don't have that option, they have to get the flying hours per pilot up, er try near double and fill the aircraft and they have what 50 less seats to recover that cost from on med routes, in a word not a chance of that happening. Thankfully they have the Finnair contract without which.............
Last edited by LNIDA; 2nd Feb 2014 at 18:43. Reason: typo
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I think you probably mean CAPA - centre for aviation - based in Sydney, they have consistently reported that Flybe CASK is about 3x that of RYR and about double EZY.
That's why Flybe is struggling to compete on sun routes particularly, they can't make money selling at the fares of the LCCs.
FF
That's why Flybe is struggling to compete on sun routes particularly, they can't make money selling at the fares of the LCCs.
FF
CAPA - centre for aviation - based in Sydney
Problem is that given the same basic data, each think tank will come up with sharply diverse opinions - as economists tend to do. I'm sure that another organisation could come up with a different perspective on FlyBe's cost structure, dependent upon who's paying for the report, and what they are looking to find.
Anyway, as cloud1 suggests, FlyBe really do appear to be divesting themselves of costs, so whatever CAPA's opinion , based on whatever data they had, the situation should be markedly different today, from say. 2012.
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re CAPA
CAPA are rather more than an industry think tank, google them and you will see.
Flybe historical problems come from very short sectors, business type city 2 city flight schedule at peak times, lots of small bases all requiring standby cover, the revenue side has been hammered by APD on UK 2 UK flights
The CASK cost method will show a falling cost the longer the sector length and will rise with shorter sectors, what this shows is the cost for flying a seat (empty or with someone on it) per kilometre, unsurprisingly the likes of Ryanair, Wizz have the lowest and the legacy carries the highest and as LNIDA rightly states SAS are the worst of the legacy carriers by a long way, he is also correct that by this method of cost comparison Flybe have a higher CASK than SAS, but its more complicated than that because SAS average sector length will be longer in no small part due to their long haul operation.
Flybe are shedding costs in terms of people and bases, but in the short term the closure costs associated with this will increase losses, but these are one off's
So a lot of work to do in an ultra competitive environment, the trick will be picking routes that are too thin for the LoCo's to bother with and cutting the wage bill through either higher productivity or real wage cuts to achieve the same end.
Flying to PMI/AGP will certainly lower their CASK but it needs to cover its direct operating costs of flying those routes.
Flybe historical problems come from very short sectors, business type city 2 city flight schedule at peak times, lots of small bases all requiring standby cover, the revenue side has been hammered by APD on UK 2 UK flights
The CASK cost method will show a falling cost the longer the sector length and will rise with shorter sectors, what this shows is the cost for flying a seat (empty or with someone on it) per kilometre, unsurprisingly the likes of Ryanair, Wizz have the lowest and the legacy carries the highest and as LNIDA rightly states SAS are the worst of the legacy carriers by a long way, he is also correct that by this method of cost comparison Flybe have a higher CASK than SAS, but its more complicated than that because SAS average sector length will be longer in no small part due to their long haul operation.
Flybe are shedding costs in terms of people and bases, but in the short term the closure costs associated with this will increase losses, but these are one off's
So a lot of work to do in an ultra competitive environment, the trick will be picking routes that are too thin for the LoCo's to bother with and cutting the wage bill through either higher productivity or real wage cuts to achieve the same end.
Flying to PMI/AGP will certainly lower their CASK but it needs to cover its direct operating costs of flying those routes.
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Germanwings DUS
A while ago there was a query re 4U to DUS - according to the current timeline the changeover to 4U (whilst still op. by Eurowings) on DUS-BHX will happen on 18th Sep 2014.
http://www.lufthansa.com/mediapool/j...treckenplanung
http://www.lufthansa.com/mediapool/j...treckenplanung
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CAPA
CAPA are rather similar to Ascend, they provide reliable and credible industry data to airlines and airports. Like Ascend, CAPA is highly respected and reputable, CAPA is strongest in Asia/Pacific. Check out how many airline CEO attended the CAPA Amsterdam event just before Xmas. it was a lot!
Flybe at BHX and elsewhere needs a market niche that can cope with higher fares and smaller aircraft. The CASK of the 180+ seaters used by the LCCs are hard for flybe to match even when the company overheads have been slashed.
it is likely that Flybe will have mixed fortunes at BHX, its my guess that the sun routes in 2014 will disappoint. Maybe Flybe know more.
FF
Flybe at BHX and elsewhere needs a market niche that can cope with higher fares and smaller aircraft. The CASK of the 180+ seaters used by the LCCs are hard for flybe to match even when the company overheads have been slashed.
it is likely that Flybe will have mixed fortunes at BHX, its my guess that the sun routes in 2014 will disappoint. Maybe Flybe know more.
FF
That was me, thanks insuindi.
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Now that BHX appears to be Flybe's largest base is there a possibility that they could turn into a hub?
Through fares from/to Isle of Man Belfast and Scotland and the international network have long been available.
What more do you want ?
Problem is that just like BEA/BA Regional/BA Con the spit hub with Manchester results in competing against itself on some of the route pairs
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Already is and as been since the take over of BA Connect.
So why don't Flybe promote BHX as a hub? As I understand it MAN is the only airport that has hub status - confused.com!
So why don't Flybe promote BHX as a hub? As I understand it MAN is the only airport that has hub status - confused.com!
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Rutankrd is incorrect - BHX is not a Flybe hub in the same sense that MAN is. Sure you can book through tickets but they all require you to go landside. I think BHX need to sort their transfer facilities first before they can have the same status as MAN and similar short connection times
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So why don't Flybe promote BHX as a hub? As I understand it MAN is the only airport that has hub status - confused.com!
The Manchester operation is promoted as a waved DOMESTIC transfer hub.
Heres the thing through you don't need to promote the Hub locally !
The Hub services work for the spokes - you advertise in Scotland and other spokes to ability to fly GLA-HAJ or EDI-MXP even IOM-PMI or ABZ- BOD and return (via BHX).
No need to advertise those links in Birmingham is there ?
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Rutankrd is incorrect - BHX is not a Flybe hub in the same sense that MAN is. Sure you can book through tickets but they all require you to go landside. I think BHX need to sort their transfer facilities first before they can have the same status as MAN and similar short connection times