Flybe-9

[virginblue]

Why shouldn't T3 and SI not be allowed to continue the franchise? Virgin is the epitome of a franchised brand and if it generates income without ruining the brand, I see no reason not to continue. And my feeling is that Flybe proper is more likely to tarnish the brand than T3 (fingers crossed) or SI.

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by BAladdy

According to the article below, Flybe announced that all its assets and operations had been transferred to Connect Airways back on the 21st February. I think Connect Airways will already have had a lot of input when it comes to the decision to dispose of the E-jets making a change in mind when it comes is very unlikely.

Flybe completes sale to Virgin-led consortium after dramatic last-minute challenger bid led by Mesa airlines | City A.M.

It will be interesting to see what changes are planned for the W19/20 schedule especially when it comes route and frequency changes.

I am surprised that there has been no announcement when it comes to the future of the franchise agreements with Blue Island and Eastern Airways.

I personally think that the decision to cut the e jets was made a lot earlier than the Connect sale. Probably this time last year.

[nguba]

As per Virgin Atlantic's annual report, the consortium can't yet exercise any control over Flybe until regulatory approval is granted:

In February 2019 Connect Airways acquired Flybe Limited (Flybe’s main trading company, including Flybe Aviation Services Limited) and Flybe.com Limited for consideration of £2.8m. As a part of the deal, the shareholders of Connect Airways (“the Consortium”) have committed to providing funding to Flybe Limited of up to £135m, of which the Virgin Atlantic Group has committed up to £41m. The committed funding from the Consortium to Flybe is secured on certain fleet assets of Flybe Limited. The deal is subject to regulatory approval, and therefore the Consortium will only obtain joint control of Flybe Limited after such approval has been granted; this is the point at which the Group will be able to be able to exercise joint control of the entity’s financial and operating policies and begin to consolidate its relevant share of earnings of Flybe Limited under the equity method.

[Reversethrustset]

Originally Posted by PDXCWL45

I personally think that the decision to cut the e jets was made a lot earlier than the Connect sale. Probably this time last year.

PDXCWL45 I doubt it, whilst it was on the wish list they simply didn't have the money to dispose of them before lease expiry.

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by Reversethrustset

PDXCWL45 I doubt it, whilst it was on the wish list they simply didn't have the money to dispose of them before lease expiry.

Then why when summer 2019 came out were the Cardiff European routes put to end in September? At minimum then the decision to close CWL and DSA may been made.

[virginblue]

Originally Posted by Reversethrustset

PDXCWL45 I doubt it, whilst it was on the wish list they simply didn't have the money to dispose of them before lease expiry.

Hasn't been dumping the E95 the plan ever since Operation Blackbird started in 2015 (?). Back then they could not get rid of all E95s as desired, stored 9 at NQY, IIRC, and then found some airports like CWL and DSA willing to fork out money in return for some shiny new routes. Unless these subsidised operations unexpectedly turned into a goldmine or the E95 could, with the help of a magic formula, be turned into a cash cow elsehwere, the plan must always have been to dispose of the E95. My understanding is that since 2015 they existed with BE on borrowed time.

[Reversethrustset]

Any decisions made about this summer/winter schedule wasn't made this time last year, did you look beyond Sept this year on the day they were released? When was the summer schedule released? Flybe did not have the money to ground pre end of lease aircraft regardless of what the schedule said. Towards the end of last summer's schedule Flybe didn't even know if there was a buyer out there let alone have the finances to put early hand backs into motion. Most people on here, whilst they knew Flybe were "in trouble", had no idea just how close to the precipice they came.

[Reversethrustset]

Originally Posted by virginblue

Hasn't been dumping the E95 the plan ever since Operation Blackbird started in 2015 (?). Back then they could not get rid of all E95s as desired, stored 9 at NQY, IIRC, and then found some airports like CWL and DSA willing to fork out money in return for some shiny new routes. Unless these subsidised operations unexpectedly turned into a goldmine or the E95 could, with the help of a magic formula, be turned into a cash cow elsehwere, the plan must always have been to dispose of the E95. My understanding is that since 2015 they existed with BE on borrowed time.

Yes absolutely, but that's not what's being discussed, we're talking about the grounding or handback of pre lease expiry aircraft which still need paying for. The E195s weren't on borrowed time per se, they were always going to be handed back at the end of the lease agreement. The reason they were grounded was simple. I won't go into exact figures but to make the maths easy I'll start by saying lets assume the 195s operating costs were £5m per year which includes a lease cost of £2m per year, well anyone with half a brain can see that the aircraft would have to earn the company £3,000,000.01 to make it worthwhile flying them, because grounding them would still cost the £2m lease cost so anything they can make that cuts into the lease cost makes it worth flying them even at a loss, it's just a question of how much of a loss, conversely if you only made £2,999,999.99 then it's worth grounding them so you only have the lease costs to pay and not the operating costs as well. Well back in 2012 when they were being grounded we possessed 14 of them and due to the incredibly unrealistic lease deals done on them by Mr French there wasn't one E195 that made money, infact the losses were as described above, they didn't cover all the operating costs hence why they were grounded. It was only when they struck deals with airports that all of a sudden some of the losses were mitigated hence why they all started flying again.

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by Reversethrustset

Any decisions made about this summer/winter schedule wasn't made this time last year, did you look beyond Sept this year on the day they were released? When was the summer schedule released? Flybe did not have the money to ground pre end of lease aircraft regardless of what the schedule said. Towards the end of last summer's schedule Flybe didn't even know if there was a buyer out there let alone have the finances to put early hand backs into motion. Most people on here, whilst they knew Flybe were "in trouble", had no idea just how close to the precipice they came.

Yes i did and even now with the exception of Faro and Paris the European routes end in September which is one of the busiest months of the year, Milan ends at the end of September so definitely something odd there or part of the wind down of the base closure maybe one that was planned no matter what as it could be reasonable to assume that by September there may not be many crew left at CWL? July-October 2019 went onsale in early October 2018.

[Reversethrustset]

They may well have had an idea in early October but they definitely wouldn't have known this time last year.

[Santanaguitardc3]

Originally Posted by OltonPete

A much happier day I would say - I am not saying that there weren't any cancellations but I couldn't find any just a few delays but I use FR24 and as most of the fleet are MLAT it is not totally reliable.

Out of 54 Dash 8's 10 were not operating at any one time, plus 1 E175 and 1 E195 but they did have one ATR flying for them as mentioned in an earlier post.

What was noticeable was out of the 44 Dash 8's flying 35 operated 7 or more sectors and some 10, which is definitely a ramp up in utilisation from when I last checked. The Cardiff 175's all did 8 sectors but one of the two Doncaster ones only 4 sectors.

There were 9 Dash 8's that did not operate at all and one that operated in the morning only and another in the afternoon only (EDI) and the 9 were at:

OA - EDI since 5th April
OH - MAN since 10th April
OJ - BHX since 9th April
CM - SOU since 10 April
CN - SOU since 2nd March and positioned to NQY today?
CX - EXT since 27 March
CY - EXT since 10 April
PE- - EXT since 9th April
PF - EXT since 2nd April

175

JJ - BHX since 1 April but listed tomorrow BHX-AMS

3 based CWL, 2 DSA, 3 MAN, 2 BHX (plus one possibly on the ground)

195

EJ - EXT since 27 Feb

2 based MAN, 1 BHX, 1 SOU & 1 EXT (1 I presume maintenance EXT)

As I say I can't vouch that this is 100% accurate but should be close.

Pete

CN dash q400 was out of use after incident

[Santanaguitardc3]

Originally Posted by Santanaguitardc3

CN dash q400 was out of use after incident

Apparently it came on stand and hit some equipment at sou

[ifu05596]

Today

Whichever aircraft operating BE341 GLAMAN today went out of service after two aborted takeoffs due to a generator issue. Can’t be helping I’m sure. Was quite a full flight that EU261 bill will hurt!

[Sharklet_321]

According to news reports the NQY-LHR route has been strong in its first month carrying over 15,000 passengers and filling Flybes aircraft at around 75%.

Does anyone know if the majority of customers on these flights are indeed connecting on to other flights at LHR or simply using it as an access point to London?

[HMN851X]

Afternoon Guys

Can anyone tell me if the IOM-LHR service is stopping after 26 October?

1 of the local radio stations is reporting the service is to end the other reports its not!

when you try to book on the web site it comes up with a error.

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by HMN851X

Afternoon Guys

Can anyone tell me if the IOM-LHR service is stopping after 26 October?

1 of the local radio stations is reporting the service is to end the other reports its not!

when you try to book on the web site it comes up with a error.

Yes it's been axed.

[virginblue]

I don't think "axed" is the correct wording. It has never been sold beyond the summer schedule or marketed in that fashion. Nor was it likely to continue given the slot-sitting nature of the operation that has been widely discussed here and elsewhere.

[goldeneye]

Originally Posted by HMN851X

Afternoon Guys

Can anyone tell me if the IOM-LHR service is stopping after 26 October?

1 of the local radio stations is reporting the service is to end the other reports its not!

when you try to book on the web site it comes up with a error.

Don’t think winter schedule is loaded for sale yet.

[JSCL]

Originally Posted by goldeneye

Don’t think winter schedule is loaded for sale yet.

I just booked IOM>MAN last night for November which was only just released. It's a little frustrating as someone who lives in the Isle of Man who has - and will - make good use of a Heathrow link.

[JobsaGoodun]

I don't think it unreasonable for Flybe to want to wait to see how the route performs first before extending it beyond the summer season. It's only been operational for a few weeks and it was put on sale at very short notice.

I'm sure that if it's well supported and this continues over the Summer then Flybe would look to extend it providing the slots used remain available in the winter of course.