Cazza fly

This is the text of the RNS dated May 2017 announcing the leasing of the first two aircraft. No mention of the lessor here.

Flybe Group PLC ("Flybe") announces that an agreement has been signed with Stobart Air Unlimited (trading as Stobart Air), a subsidiary of Stobart Group Limited ("Stobart"), to provide two Embraer E195 aircraft under a combined commercial arrangement lasting up to 20 months subject to earlier termination options. The two aircraft will be based at London Southend Airport. Flybe will initially operate the aircraft on behalf of Stobart under a crewed "wet lease" arrangement migrating to Stobart operating the aircraft itself no later than 1st January 2018. The aircraft will be operated in Flybe branding under the existing Franchise Agreement between the two companies.

It is the three aircraft that Stobart (in the form of its leasing company Propius) have purchased that will come direct from the leasing company GOAL GmbH. I don't know whether Flybe's lease on these aircraft was expiring or whether it is extinguished as a function of the purchase. And yes it is the aircraft that arrived late that is the first of the three.

Perfect. Thanks for that! Makes complete sense. 👍

So, is it possible that GOAL are responsible to the maintenance of those e195's which Flybe/ Stobart operate under their JV?

Seems unusual for them to trade with a German based leasor when are based in Dublin as the global hub for aircraft leasing.

No, the lessor of a dry-leased aircraft would not be responsible for maintenance. Normally the operator is responsible for the maintenance (whether in this particular sublease agreement that's Stobart or whether the responsibility has been left with flyBE), and as part of the lease agreement, the operator has to pay maintenance reserves into a separate account which is intended to cover the cost of major maintenance work required in the course of the lease or at its end (plus of course with a chunk left over as additional profit for the lessor :hmm:). The maintenance reserves only cover agreed major maintenance work, not ongoing snags - which will be at the operator's cost. Hence smart airlines with clued-in technical staff would look carefully in advance at the reliability and maintenance records of the aircraft they plan to lease, to make sure they are not getting a dog...

There's nothing unusual about dealing with a lessor like GOAL. There is a tradition of German high-net-worth investors going into asset finance (helped in the past by specific German tax laws) and if I recall correctly, some lessors such as GOAL were established to target this mostly German investor pool.

Or are you suggesting some level of conspiracy theory that I'm missing?;)

Thanks for reply, informative! No conspiracy theory from this end, i cant stand theorists of that ilk :ok:

The wet lease in the Isle of Man was a five year deal and Flybe exercised its right to give a years notice at the three year mark. Negotiations were undertaken and crews were told in June that the base is to close on 31.03.2019. Flybe have said that there will be two Q400s based on there IOM thereafter.

Stobart have been restructuring the routes under the Flybe franchise out of SEN and they have decided to end some routes. We have to remember that the Stobart Group which owns SEN have allowed Ryanair to operate 5 aircraft so this could be a reason why they have decided to end some routes.

Whats the latest timeline for the remaining x 6 E95's to disappear from the fleet please (knowing that early 2020 is for full removal)?

I believe there will be 4 left for Summer 19 and they leave in January 2020.

Where does this nugget come from? Everywhere I read that FR are to operate 3 aircraft from SEN.

DC3

Apologies I got my wires crossed! Its a 5 year deal with 3 aircraft initially.. :/

'seen' it quite a few times

Doncaster to Newquay with a E175 :eek: Someone tell me I am imagining it.

Why would you be imagining it? It operates 3x weekly throughout the summer and has done since 2016. Infact it was previously operated back then on the E195. I believe it does pretty well too looking at the stats.

Flybe has 2 E175s based at DSA so what is the surprise that it's operated on them?

Oh don't worry, Disjointed Rivets is only here to have another go at the airline that gave him a leg up in the industry, he's got form on that one, he fails to realise that if they pulled out of his beloved airport he'd be staring at 6,000 new houses in a few years time.

Doncaster-Newquay
 

Not quite, 78 on a Dash and 88 on the 175, but like others don't really understand RJ's point.

Seems to me that NQY is quite a good story for BEE.

Stobart seem to pull 2 E95s at SEN
 

A media report today suggests that Stobart will pull two E95s at Southend and they will deploy the remaining one on the Dublin route from next spring. They are to discontinue a number of SEN routes that are currently operated by the E95s. I wonder what they are going to do with the two E95s that they were supposed to purchase this autumn/winter. But there is no mentioning that the franchise deal with flybe is dead.

ACMI work I would imagine!