Now let me see what's the date today?

Couple of planes to be hived off & painted into a black & yellow livery.

Ok honey. Now buzz off. Lol

https://news.sky.com/story/flybe-bla...venue-11314945

Flybe dip in revenue due weather.

Bet they wished they had taken up STOBARTS offer

Trouble is when you look at the share price over the last 12 months, every qtr they dip back into the 30/35 range and they are basically in "triage"

I think the chances of them coming back with a new lease of life and a major turnaround in profits are slim to remote and they are only 1 "event" away from some difficult uncomfortable truths.

They need a partner to come to the table with deep pockets to stabilise and recover to a point that they can at least breathe easy.... still fingers crossed eh!

The internal comms painted a more optimistic picture. It also foretold that the media would mainly focus on the gloomy bits which Sky duly did.

Especially in the media, when the numbers have been iffy for a while it's difficult to paint an optimistic picture. Others have come back from worse, so I hope the latest plan works - but I fear it needs some added direction.

Hardly a shock!

There does seem to be some 'exceptional' reason with every announcement, though.

Indeed! This has been the position for 8/9 years, once the BA Connect dowry had all been consumed, there has always been some 'excuse', and promises of big things, at the end of the rainbow.

Down-sizing to significantly enhanced profitabilty is a very hard trick to pull off in any business, and bearing in mind the history here, it is hard to see FlyBe succeeding.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I can't see how they have a long-term future, in the current form and business model.

And this is when oil is cheap :-(

Just booked an Exeter - Norwich flight for £29.00.
The actual airfare was £3.46. And it's an Embraer!

Here's to positioning flights!

If they don't survive then that will be a massive blow to a lot of airports and a lot of routes won't be replaced, the likes of Ryanair, Easyjet and BA aren't going to replace the connectivity that Flybe provide across the UK.

Or if they do it won’t be at a price many people like, you’ll be back to 15 people each morning paying £400 to fly SOU-MAN with BMI or someone.

The obvious first step (and one I think they've already started to take) is a root and branch cull of unprofitable or marginal routes, and radical slimming down of the fleet to ensure they aren't carrying too much equipment to service the slimmed down route network.

If this is done you'll see whinges on this very forum from "airport fans" from Aberdeen to Newquay complaining bitterly that FlyBe has betrayed / abandoned or any one of heaven knows how many other adjectives because route or routes have been culled from their favourite airport.

If the worst were to happen, and I sincerely hope we are a long way from that, then new carriers would come on to the profitable routes ,and marginal ones would go by the wayside - so the end result would be the same. All airports on the network would suffer, but probably the bigger bases like MAN, BHX and SOU would suffer less than some others, perhaps like CWL, DSA, and EXT - not naming them specifically, just using them as examples.

If there is money to be made on a route, another will pick it up. It gets complicated when you add up all the various parts - the Manchester 'hub', Heathrow shuttles, LCY, regional 'sun,city,ski', small regional bases (CWL/DSA/NWI). You could easily see that being split up.

They are also up against rail competition on many routes. With some airport experiences being dire ( MAN T3 for instance) any time advantage of flying is lost.

However, given the (usually) exorbitant level of rail fares they will often win out on price, though the downside of air travel against rail is that generally speaking, meetings tend to be in city centres, where railway stations tend to be, and a big part of the time / price calculation is how much time / cost there is getting to and from the airports / railway stations and destination.

The original DSA contract was only signed until the end of 2018.

I've no idea whether the routes there are profitable, but if they are about saving money, I wouldn't expect it to carry on into 2019.

TimmyW - can you clarify. If you don't know whether the routes are profitable, why do you expect them to close?

Flybe launching an operation against Loganair isn't the action of a company that is governed by business sense... I wonder how much that cost them.

Curious to know if they have been affected by losing Loganair...

You only have to look at how regularly the DSA schedules are altered to make an informed assumption.

Paris cut to 4 weekly from daily for the majority of the summer, which means one aircraft sat idle for most of the morning. That isn't the sign of a profitable route.

BE's activity at DSA is not representative of the airlines mainline operations.

I would suspect their presence at DSA is costing Peel and that BE are hapy to last out the agreed term with reasonable yield on the Sun Routes. CDG & AMS will not get the customer support that BE see at its other bases where the same routes are offered with the flexibility of 3x daily flights - even HUY & DTV can even sustain 3x Daily AMS where KLM have made that commitment.

Sad for DSA at the end of the year if BE leave, but it will be the airport that will be seen to have failed rather than the airline not offering sustainable route frequency.

Actually, it's a very good point. Often it's the airport that has failed a route to be successful, not the actual airline. I know airports love "to know in advance" which routes they want to have, and suck airlines, if they are gullible, into doing it.

Airports don't sell seats.

Was preparing to leave PMI on Sunday and on the walk round noticed Flybe D-ECOT DH8D coming into land. Out of interest do Flybe utilise the Dash 8 on sun routes on a regular basis? Certainly on the climb out we experienced some turbulence in the north of Mallorca, With a max altitude of 24/25,000ft could be an interesting flight???
Anyone Know the max flight distance other airlines use the DH8 for

Flybe use the DH8D on a Sunday from Exeter on a charter flight on behalf of Thomas Cook throughout the summer season , and a similar service is run to Mahon from Southampton on behalf of TUI in the summer on a Sat
Flybe also regularly use the DH8 D from Southampton throughout the summer to PMI and ALC on their scheduled flights

Austrian regularly run DH8D on some longish routes - LNZ (Linz) down to some of the Greek islands like KGS, RHO and AOK with flying times of 3h-3h15 - Great Circle Mapper

IOM
 

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/talks-on-future-of-flybe-services-to-island/

Flybe has confirmed to Isle of Man Newspapers the airline will re-establish its former Ronaldsway base.

Currently, Flybe flights from the island are operated under an agreement with Stobart Air, a deal which will end on March 31 next year.

A company spokesman said: ’Flybe can confirm that the arrangement it has with franchise partner, Stobart Air, for the [Liverpool and Man chester] routes will end next year.

’And that, with effect from March 31, 2019, both will continue on Flybe’s own 78-seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft from a newly-established base.

’Flybe looks forward to continuing to serve the island community and to welcoming customers back on board including those travelling under its renewed three year contract with the Isle of Man Department of Health and Social Care.’

The airline later confirmed that new base will be at Ronaldsway.

The move has been welcomed by passenger watchdog Travelwatch after airport bosses confirmed discussions had been held with the airline.

A Travelwatch spokesman said: ’We believe it is a very positive move for the island for many reasons.

’It firstly shows a commitment to the island from the airline because if you set up a base somewhere, employ staff and everything that goes with it, it becomes much less likely that airline will pull out.

’At the moment, no airline has a base here and that means an airline could just leave if it decided the island isn’t profitable, so yes it is a positive move.’

Isle of Man Newspapers understands that Stobart Air crews were recently told the contract with Flybe would not be renewed next year.

Stobart has operated Flybe routes to and from the island for a number of years, mostly to Liverpool and Manchester with a daily flight to Birmingham.

The Travelwatch spokesman noted that the group hopes the decision could lead to more routes opening to and from the island in the future.

He explained that at present two aircraft are used for Manx routes but that Flybe could be interested in operating a third aircraft, as would be the company’s standard practice for smaller regional airports.

He added: ’The aircraft will also hopefully be better suited to the needs of patients who travel to Liverpool for treatment.

’Due to the aircraft used by Stobart, the ATR 72-500, patients transfers are currently loaded only from the rear door. Hopefully, with a two door aircraft like Flybe usually operate, this should be easier for them.

’The aircraft that the company usually operates have a higher capacity too which would be good for the island.’

The current ATR 72-500 aircraft contain hold 72 passengers while Flybe’s Bombardier Q400 aircraft will hold 78 passengers.

The Travelwatch spokesman was hopeful the move could provide more work for aircraft engineers in the island.

Stobart Air also operates Dublin flights to and from the island under the Aer Lingus Regional brand.

On the BE 6251 06:45 SEN-DUB today. Surprised to they'v switched from the E195 to ATR this morning. Looks like pax didn't warrant the E195 today. METAR looks good, winds OK.

A lot of bizjets on the ramp - SEN is a real hive of activity this morning and good to see the place being busy and lively.

Following that FR announcement I can see SEN has the makings of a successful bright future.

​​​​​Not good enough Flybe!!!

BE6258 DUB to SEN was scheduled to depart 20:25

Delayed until a 01:45 departure!!!!

Not a single email or text message from Flybe.
Only communication received from Dublin airport flight tracker services. Numerous pax in the queues at checkin desks all commenting similar.

Shambolic customer communications.

I've now experienced intermittent problems on this Flybe route so many times that this is the nail in the coffin. Switching back to Cityjet or BA into City Airport from now on. Won't use this amateur airline anymore, utterly crap service.

It's Stobart Air that operate it not Flybe. So complain about them !

mik3bravo...perhaps your ire is better directed at Stobarts as they are the operators of the route? As has been shown by the shambles at Carlisle even Mickey Mouse refuses to wear a Stobart Air watch.

Think you'll find that the passenger pays their money to Flybe, so it's Flybe's problem.

So if Eastern Airways E170 goes tech operating for BA Cityflyer we blame BA then do we? Or if Avion Express run late operating for Jet2 then we blame Jet2 then?

This last flight each Sunday night from DUB into SEN has had its fair share of cock ups. The a/c is generally getting caught up in some issues throughout the days schedules but seems it''s a common issue impacting the particular flight at this particular day and slot.

Couple of regular pax at checkin queue commenting they've had enough of how sh!t Flybe have been in running a reliable punctual service on the route. Even had the comment 'Ryanair wouldn't be this sh!t'

I haven' a clue what the issue is but whoever works in flight ops needs to look at this ridiculous inability to provide the service pax expect and pay for.

As for the Stobart operate the service argument. I am the pax, I book Flybe using their app and pay for the flight to Flybe. Transparently speaking Flybe are the airline responsible. It is for Flybe to get its sh!t together and if there are issues at Stobart flight ops too then it' not for a pax to sort that out it is responsibility of these two sh!t operators to organise their business and passenger services.

As I've said, this is the last time I'll use Flybe at all. From the sound of the other pissed off pax sitting here in Dublin I think it' fair to say many of them will not use Flybe again either. The word will spread in the SEN area.

I pitty the skipper and hostie's on this delayed flight tonight... there are a lot of extremely annoyed pax. But we'll get the usual BS scripted skipper announcement to pax in the rear...