I do hope that date has more substance to it than the ones they were posting for the release of S15 a few months ago!

I see G-PRPL has started operating now - not sure when it's first flight was but it is doing EXT-DUB at the moment

So at a time when Ryanair is attributing part of its impressive profit improvement to getting flights on sale earlier, Flybe decide that the opposite strategy is a good idea... Or more likely, are so busy fire fighting that they just haven't had time to do it yet.

cloud1

PL was doing a UK-France service yesterday. I think it was Bergerac.

G-PRPL has been online for a week now.

Ahh I see it was the first time I had seen it on FR24. Does anyone know if there are any differences in the cabin as someone told me these were the next gen models?

They are the NextGen models and do seem a little more modern in the cabin. They have the updated cabin including brighter LED lighting. There are pivoting overhead bins, which are smaller on the AB side for the first few rows.

195's
 

I notice today that there have been 5 195's flying - 2 ex-SOU (Sunshine routes), 1 ex-EXT (Sunshine routes), 1 ex-BHX (CDG) and 1 ex-CWL (to EDI, JER, then CDG and DUB, with a large period of downtime between the first 2 and last 2 return trips).

The 1 CWL-based machine positioned down from MAN last night.

Is 5 the max. that is going to be operated, or is there another 1 to be activated when the 2nd at CWL is needed?

E195 related. Are there any plans to repain them into the purple livery ?


cs

Re: 195's
 

Next E195 due to go to CWL in September. No there are NO plans to paint the E195's purple.

What is the downtime due to ?? Crewing hours ? Or another route that's due to come on-line ??

On a similar note, according to the BE seat selector a few of the routes ex CWL seem well loaded given the relatively short lead time on seat sales. Hopefully this continues !

CWL Fleet
 

Flybe’s new base at Cardiff Airport opens officially today (1 June 2015) with passengers boarding inaugural flights to Edinburgh, Paris and Dublin as part of an extended 12 route network that also includes new routes to Cork, Faro, Glasgow, Munich, and Milan.

As part of its new two aircraft base, Europe’s largest regional airline will also improve frequency and capacity on existing routes to Belfast City, Dusseldorf, Jersey and on its 2015-16 Winter flights to Geneva. The first of two 118-seat Embraer 195 aircraft jets into Cardiff today to begin operations, while the second will follow on 1 September 2015. The 10- year agreement between Flybe and Cardiff Airport brings half a million extra seats for sale each year and has created 50 new jobs, including flight crew

To update/pontificate my previous post above, today the CWL 195 is going to EDI, GLA, MXP and DUB, and there are less gaps, so maybe yesterday's was just because JER is obviously a short rotation compared to MXP and the schedule has to work around slot availability.

The a/c did look to be about 1hr delayed departing to CDG yesterday (despite over 3 hrs sat at CWL beforehand), with this delay also affecting the following DUB rotation.

So what now for the 195 disposal plans?

I would also like to know about the Republic aircraft... I'm hoping they still have the first class, I would have thought that it would make sense for them to offer first class service from London City but I doubt they will

Cardiff
 

10 year deal with Cardiff airport? Are they mad? Seriously, has this management heard about something called research? It would have taken one minion no more than an hour alone with Google to work out these airports are not only dead losses but send your airline to the wall. Madness:ugh:

Rivet joint
As usual, great to read your expert, well informed opinion. NOT:ugh:

Did they mot get stung operating in NWI and forced to operate phantom flights to boost numbers

Sorry, makes sense to offer first class on a domestic route?? Where in Europe do any domestic services offer first class?

Time for a reality check me thinks!

I'm sure the actors they employed enjoy their little day trips?!

Obviously not full first class, just a more expensive economy, maybe with free drinks.

If you've got the big seats with more room + new routes from the heart of london, why not employ them usefully?

EDIT: Also, where would we be if people routinely looked around and thought "well, nobody else does this, we'll not bother"

Is there any reason why BE serve Paris-Orly from Southampton when every other route to Paris they operate goes into Charles de Gaulle?

Some time ago, BE operated SOUCDG in competition to AF on SOUORY. I think that a commercial agreement was reached for BE to operate the Paris route with an AF codeshare, around the same time as they signed a wider codeshare agreement on their UK to France routes but with ORY as the arrival point instead of CDG ex SOU.

has the performance improved in terms of numbers at the lcy operation in recent months

Anyone know when the winter schedule is going to be out? Trying to book a Southampton to Belfast trip in November. I thought it was due right at the start of June?

Flybe flight grounded by bee on Southampton to Dublin journey - BBC News :D:D

I can only assume the bee misinterpreted their name and thought it was FlyBee! ;)

195's & winter 2015/6
 

JetJamie

Re the winter schedule - just showing off that they have plenty of cash in the bank!!!!

The only problem with that is that they have run the risk that all the city-break traffic and skiers have booked with other airlines and yes I do know the majority of flybe bookings are in last three months prior to departure but in the past at least they have put the ski routes on sale before the rest.

Has there been a change of tack with the 195's, as a sixth 195 has been returned to service today?

I can't see any mention of flying 6 195's this summer unless this all changed with the Cardiff arrangement but I understood the aircraft were due to be the 195's from Manchester and Birmingham and duly the first aircraft flew last week down from MAN to CWL (MAN - CDG now a 175) and the booking engine shows BHX-CDG changing to the 175 from September.

However G-FBEN sneaked into BHX yesterday from Exeter and has operated BHX- Milan tonight with the other 195 on BHX-CDG as usual.

Pete

G-FBEK and G-FBEL have been laid up for the longest of any of the 195s, and in Newquay - and I'm hearing that these aircraft may present significant "challenges" to return to service due to the deterioration in their condition during the storage. Any updates on whether this pair are expected to return?

I do hope Flybe can find a way to keep their E195's operating, presumably renegotiated lease terms could help this to happen although we of course do not know the full details. With the economy improving and passenger numbers growing having a few larger aircraft to increase capacity on the peak routes and allow for some longer routes to be flown (i.e. UK-Spain is one of the busiest country pairings in the world for air traffic, and there are still quite a few niches that could be explored via W patterns or flights to smaller Spanish airports).

Wiki states (I know I know...) that Flybe currently have 10 in the fleet, and I would think that 8-10 aircraft would probably be all Flybe would need to cover the areas I have mentioned above. They of course also have a decent amount of commonality with the E175 fleet which helps reduce the additional costs of having a small number of a different aircraft type in the fleet.

Well there are plenty of unserved niched routes out of Manchester that are possible for Flybe, Seville, Bordeaux, Lyon & Bremen(vacated by RYR) to name a few. Much better than going head to head with Lufthansa on Dusseldorf

195's in service
 

As of today G-FBEF, G, H, I, J, and N are in service

195's
 

Whispering Giant

K showing on libhomeradar as the last flight back in January 2014.

BHX-CDG

195 showing restored to the route for winter leaving the 175 for just for 7 weeks over September and October.

Manchester seems to be the same and I assume just the 195 transferring from Southampton and Exeter after the sun routes end.

Pete

G-FBEK hasn't been in service at Exeter this year yet, it's been FBEJ and FBEF mainly, with I think FBEH operating this week.

I hope that clears up the confusion.

Winter schedule is available

According to the flybe facebook page it's only a partial release.


cs

Flybe Winter schedule
 

Highlights identified so far are:

MAN - AMS increase to 6 per day
LPL - BHD increase to 5 per day
LPL - IOM increase to 4 per day

LPL - AMS remains at 3 per day, so that's one heck of an increase in capacity from North West to AMS on a daily basis!

Flybe at BHX
 

AMS - 6 daily
DUS 5 daily

From Winter schedule

how is the exeter-lcy route performing has it improved in recent months