Dash 8-Q400
 

BBC News 24 have just reported 6 Dash 8 have been grounded for checks due to the problems SAS aircraft have encounted.


STATSMAN

Yep has the delays and cancellations on their website, for anybody who is concerned or maybe flying later today

It's just been on the 1 o'clock news about it and the VT was of a WOW Dash...... Nice one BBC

yeh i saw that LOL. Flybe say there are only minor delays now:ok: (well no more than usuall)

Flymaybe
 

ADC and Cider get your heads out of the hangar and look at this wikepdia thread under canx for "FLYMAYBE" ref then you might begin to stop believing your own propoganda and understand why BMI are creaming you at MAN. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flybe

ADC2604 - We could argue until the cows come home but this would be pointless as neither of us will see eye to eye on the matter. You say:

"In my opinion which I am sure is shared by many others, worthless or pointless comments are those given where there hasn't actually been any experience."

I say you seem to be missing a point-I have experienced thier delays and poor customer service-just not as a passenger. How does that make a difference?
You say:

"With regards to punctuality - the numbers I work with include delays and cancellations."

And I say that makes sense! It's your job to polish a turd and of coarse you have to believe your own hype-thats what pays your wages. But believe me, when you leave BE and look back, you will see that myself, one of your own pilots on here and alot of other people were infact merely pointing out a truth.
I have no qualms with BE withdrawing the Q400's. That is what any responsible company should have done and I doubt you will hear anyone say otherwise on here, however, you say:

"Subs were drafted in as soon as possible and a stirling job in my professional opinion so well done BE management :D "

I say: Someone pass me a bucket........

An important point:

ADC2604 said

The handling agents at the airports are the face of Flybe AT the airport. If they spout rubbish, then that is percieved as Flybe spouting rubbish. Not a good look for the pax.

At the end of the day, handling agents can only go by what they've been told, which is an estimated time of arrival for whatever reason.

Don't be think it would be appreciated if said the truth as today "sorry your flight is going to be 2 hours delayed today as the captain is arguing with the engineer in BHD as the captain says the plane is broke but the engineer says it's ok, but the captain won't fly the plane".

And i must say that flybe flights from CWL must be around the 50% delayed mark. some of which are due to the transit pax from CDG travelling to BHD having to get off, clear immigration and security and go back on the same a/c all within 25 mins (yeah whatever) mind they were oh so considerate and given us 30 mins for the winter.

Lots more cancellations today dispite what Flybe said Yesterday, mostly from EXT and NWI

From today's Southampton Echo

http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/..._to_normal.php

"AIR passengers travelling on Flybe flights should not experience any delays or cancellations today following the grounding of six of the airline's aircraft"

From Southampton Arrivals on Ceefax

0750 Guernsey BE616 Delayed
0755 Jersey BE228 Cancelled
0830 Glasgow BE883 Delayed
0935 Manchester BE7362 Delayed
0945 Leeds B/Ford BE172 Cancelled
1045 Jersey BE232 Cancelled
1045 Glasgow BE881 Delayed

Presumably The Echo has had a press release from Flybe that's a little economical with the truth!

Le Tirer

Fog at Gatwick. Any fog around Southampton?

TUTH

TUTH

I thought of that possibility just after I'd posted! But looking at the weather for the airfields concerned it seems unlikely this is the cause of the delays/cancellations unless there is a knock-on effect from fog elsewhere.

Southampton 9000m
Jersey CAVOK
Guernsey 10Km+
Leeds 6000m Fog in vicinity
Manchester 3200m Mist
Glasgow 10Km+

Wouldn't be so sure about BMI (Baby) being any more punctual than BE...

I have a friend over from Belfast at the moment, and his BMI Baby flight on Tuesday night (Belfast to Birmingham) was delayed by over two hours. No explanation given.

He is 6ft 3in tall, and the a/c was only 50% (estimate) full. He asked that given the delay, the time of day (midnight) he could move to a seat in the first row for some leg space. "Yes sir... of course you can. Thats £15 please."

Now that is brilliant BMI customer service. Keep you waiting for several hours then charge you to use an otherwise unoccupied seat. Not impressed.

I pointed out that BE had always been good to me - he is now flying back with them and will not fly BMI Baby again.

I know this may be an exception, etc etc; please don't bite my head off, just reporting a particular incident in which BE and BMI were involved!

I have to admit that BmiBaby are far from perfect and they do suffer from a lot of delays.

At CWL there has been an a/c 3 weeks in a row that has gone tech abroad. They then send an a/c down from EMA to operate the flights for CWL (obviously that going to cause delays up in EMA unless they get an a/c from BHX as well which means in totaL 3 bases have got major delays).

The main problem is that how many a/c has BE got compared to WW? And going by reports, how many have they got sat on the ground in various bases? Surely there shouln't be excuses for all theese delays and cancellations (in exception for today and yesterday) as there should be enough aircraft to replace tech, unless it goes down to the old favourite crewing problems.

Le Tirer,

looks like a completely normal day :rolleyes:

Yep, certainly does! An EMB195 has just diverted to BOH from SOU with a brake problem.

LT

The reason the 195 is wonderful and so eco friendly aircraft is cos its nearly always tucked up in a nice warm Hangar :}

ADC can I borrow your sunnies you know the ones with the rose tint?

See FlyBe's website are showing more cancelations through to and including Monday 17th. Does this mean the checks now extend to the whole fleet, or has something been found which needs rectification or parts (which presumably are in short supply)?

HAC
Yes :rolleyes:

HAC - basically Bombardier asked that 16 of BE D8-400s be grounded for checks.... because there are so many it is taking longer than previously planned. However the canx are not to bad in the sense that the one that have been canx are reg routes and therefore the majority of pax can be easily rebooked.

Hoping to get things back on track by tues/wed.

Hi Helicraig,

There are always 2 sides to every story, I know the very incident in which you are talking about. An explanation was given by the captain on his welcome pa once everyone had boarded and an apology was also given for the delay on landing into Birmingham.

Bmibaby always charge for extra leg room front row seats, Even on low loads people are not permitted to sit there without charge. Obviously I can understand why this would be frustrating to passengers, especially to passengers who have already encountered a delay but it is important to be consistent. If this pax had been permitted to sit there on this occasion, on another occasion they may encounter different staff who would refuse and then we get into the whole, "Well I've been allowed before".

Also you have the problem with the passengers who have paid the extra leg room fee if you then move other passengers who ask to sit there for free.

This was the only Q400 flying in and out of NWI today and probably one of the newest in the fleet.....

Still waiting 4 months for a refund after BE cancelled my flight. Its in the hands of my solicitors now.:=

Ext 15/09
 

I presume that the groundings are the reason behind the Titan 142 that has been going in and out of EXT today?
Normal service will be resumed:ugh:?

Yes Flyer its new, but not the newist.
CX is the newist a/c flybe have q400 wise.

Seems to me that the checks are only being carried out on the Delta A/c
All the Charlie a/c seem to be ok.

A pat on the back for BE.......
 

My first post here, and a story of some excellent service from FlyBe.

On Friday, I flew EDI-MAN, MAN-IOM due to pick up the last flight of the day ex MAN, at 19.55, travelling with 11 colleagues.

When we arrived at MAN, a few minutes early, at 17.40, it became apparent that the previous MAN-IOM flight, due out at 17.15 hadn't gone and was running approx 90mins late. This would inevitable mean that our flight would be at least 90 mins late, meaning we'd get home at 22.00, if at all.

I approached the Flight Support desk, to see if they would put me on the earlier flight, (I was the only one without checked bags in our party), when it eventually left, and after checking with BE it was agreed, and I was switched without any fuss or money changing hands.

Once the precedent was established my rermaining 11 colleagues all asked to be changed and this was done too, on the understanding that the bags might still be on the later flight.

In the event, we all got back to IOM an hour earlier than scheduled and all the bags made it on the same flight, so well done to FlyBe and Flight Support.

actually CY is the latest aircraft that I am aware of!!

GW76 - and? Contact the refunds department and tell them, I am sure they will sort it out......
You really must be naive if you really think ive not already done that....:ugh:
Sort it out...yeah right. Here are a few of the clangers 4 months on- "its being dealt with", " we have just taken over BA Connect" (wasnt that in January???), " we have been inundated with complaints" , " its now being dealt with as a priority ( that was Aug)"
Would you repeatedly hang-on on a premium rate phone line on multiple occasions to get the above feeble excuses and be charged for something that wasnt my fault....I think not.
"hardly productive"
If contacting them again is your best suggestion...ill stick with my solicitor thank you.:rolleyes: (its great having a friend whos a legal eagle :cool:)
A BE employee by any chance.....?

do a google for hmcs money claim :)

Tonyq nice post or should I say ADC2604! You are obviously in management, If the staff dont believe BS dont see why the pax will.:ugh:

One thing people hate is being lied to! Truth could be ugly but generally accepted, Lies make things ugly, pax top comments why can you never contact anyone at BE! Havent the heart to say employees have same problem. However I believe customer service reps are being taken on so hopefully things are about to get better!

hey, i was wondering if any body can tell me this, i was wondering how many people the Q400 needs to have on it to be "breakingeven", i have searched the internet and it all comes up with 1/3 full, is this about the same with Flybe, or does this vary on distance of route?

just a note on Flybe out of NWI today both aircraft are running late, one over 4 hours and the other nearly 2 hours:ouch:, presume both aircraft gone tech after this morning. im sure the passengers caught up in these delays will fly on you again:rolleyes::hmm:

very true, thanks for explaining it to me!!, altough it's never great to have delays, i agree they have done well to get another plane down there. but still im sure the Passengers still won't be to happy but then again would anyone

altough they did have to cancel the Amsterdam one, but then again KLM do 4 flights a day from NWI, hopefully Flybe put them on KLM flights:ok:

thanks again

NickBarnes said:

do you really think they would?

I've always preferred to travel on

http://paulcoulthread.fotopic.net/p42257720.html

rather than

http://paulcoulthread.fotopic.net/p44957557.html

because of the timings, but I've found KLM to be quite well loaded so, presumably, quite a lot of others feel the same way?

i suppose so, but when i was going to Helsinki via Dusseldorf, Air berlin were late leaving Stansted which meant we missed our flight to Helsinki, so they put us free of charge onto a Finnair flight.

so don't Flybe do this even tough there is another airline which does the same service?

In my recent experience, Flybe dont give a stuff about passengers onward connections.

Not getting any better are they? Tonights BEE415 due BHX at 1935 from BHD is now operating to MAN with coach likely to be at BHX at 0030.
If there is an aircraft to operate to MAN, why can it not operate to BHX?

Declaration of interest - Mrs Leofric is on the flight and is not a happy bunny.
And 0030 is passed my bedtime.

I think the answer is that so many of the delays are not caused by adverse weather or even tech faults but by an inability to get the right aircraft in the right place at the right time with a crew who are in hours and their total failure to explain what is going on to passengers or alternatively telling passengers a story which is clearly untrue.

Incidentally the BE415 passengers last night were picked up from BHD by a GLA-MAN flight, so yet more passengers inconvenienced.

This happened on my last flight with FlyBe, which was delayed by an hour "due to an air traffic delay to the first flight of the day" per the flight deck announcement. This aircraft does 4 return trips between the same airports each day. The airport flight arrivals board web page for arrivals at each airport showed the first 3 sectors to have operated on time.

When the announcement was made I groaned and said the the cabin attendant sitting opposite me that that was simply untrue. He readily agreed and said that the flight crew had been told to say that by ops. He explained that the delay had actually been caused by an engineering issue and by the lack of the right engineer to sign off the fault. He said it happens all the time, and he often sees frequent flying pax shaking their heads in disbelief.

It is wrong for any employer to intentionally misinform or tell staff to lie to their customers. It is particularly concerning when those staff obliged to tell tales are professionals and more so when the business is in aviation.

If anyone from FlyBe management reads this could I suggest that they set about changing the culture that allows these tales to be told. Right now it's merely misinforming the pax, but worse might happen if it becomes endemic.

Positive Flybe experience!
 

Chica, re your comment above, most low cost airlines don't; the extra cost involved in accommodating interlining pax is a significant cost and that's why they don't.

I flew from DUB to SOU and JER yesterday; I chose BE because it had a 195 on the DUB-SOU route and I have to say, in all fairness, I haven't been as impressed by a new aircraft type in a long time; very comfortable (something one could never say of the 146!), clean, fine big windows; service was very good; both flights a little on the late side, but I made my connection. The SOU-JER flight was on a Dash 8; comfortable - not as nice as the 195, but can't expect it to be; very nice cabin crew (yet to meet a BE cabin crew that wasn't) and both main gear legs held up on landing; what more can I want.

OK, the last bit was a bit tongue in cheek, but I think BE is doing its best and as someone who has been a critic of them in the past, I think they do their best and they provide a good service. Credit where credit is due.

"why does every delay that BE encounter seem to end up on pprune?

flybe operate nearly 600 flights every day, some will run late. most dont."

Might I suggest that this has something to do with the fact that BE are supposed to operate a reliable service on domestic routes, with a supposed high frequency. Last time I used them, my flight (BHX-GLA) was 3 hours late. That time, I wasn't too bothered - going up for new year, and I had lounge access, so delay = free beers.

As far as passing on to other airlines goes, I don't even think the option of changing to another BE flight was available - but even on high frequency routes, there are sometimes gaps in the timetable, and iirc, the next flight wasn't due for another hour or so after this one eventually departed.

Ultimately, it comes down to passenger expectations. The story above about giving out deliberately misleading information is extremely damning, but I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me. When I travel between the Midlands and Scotland, I have a choice between flying and taking the train. There is nothing more stupid than paying more for a flight, walking through Glasgow Central station to see a train in there which is heading down south, heading out to GLA, having a delayed flight, and then turning up at Birmingham International to board the same train that could have taken me all the way, without the hassles involved with flying.