I'm curious as to why Cityflyer seems to be in this under-capacity situation where they need the help of a competitor?

Stobart Air Leasing is hardly a competitor, except that the parent company operate Southend.

…& another part of the empire fund & operate services from Southend of course.

Yes of course. But the other EMBs will stop operating schedules from SEN in the New Year.

No sign of olive branches here.


Happy Christmas
to all the honourable People in life. Let’s keep fighting against the Evil that try to destroy the good we have created. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year thanks for your support. 2019 will be a big surprise for wrongful behaviour. Best Wishes Andrew.

Copied from an Andrew Tinkler Christmas day post on Twitter.

Serious stuff?

​​​​​​https://news.sky.com/story/virgin-an...-deal-11604069

With some luck the Dublin - Cardiff route will return to Aer Lingus Regional, and maybe bring the SOU route over too, though upon reflection with no early slots from Dublin available, maybe it won't happen..

Someone's got to go in and sort it out at FlyBE. Clear out needed, new leadership.

Two things sprung to mind:

1. if FlyBE get those E195's sorted out and address the recurring faults on that Dublin route then they'll be strongly positioned on that route before Ryanair begin running their SEN - DUB service in April

2. Not sure Ryanair will achieve strong loads on that SEN - DUB route, B737 seems a lot of seats to try fill. The FlyBE E195 on that route struggle to fill lately, but probably because people shifted over to alternative options due to the faults and unreliability of the E195s on that route

Either way, it's clear to me that more competition is great for consumers, more options, more price competition AND more importantly, creating local employment in the Southend area.

I can't see Flybe giving up the Dublin route from Cardiff. It's one of their busiest routes and it's one they have been steadingly increasing as it will be 15 weekly for Summer 2019. I also think there isn't enough connecting traffic to the USA they'd have to rely on point to point and do they want that? Cardiff has KLM which is 3 daily and their USA offerings and also CDG at next year 11 weekly and Heathrow down the road and from my personal experience the transit experience on the way out at Dublin isn't as good as AMS and negates the pre-clearance advantage in my view. On the way back it's fine but on the way out i had to go through 2 security checkpoints which i found to be a hassle.
It

Ryanair will kill them dead-their fares will be irresistible-anyway that is what they normally do. As for the 737 being too big - RYR don't seem to mind too much if the rest of what they are doing works- the FR341 ex DUB to LTN at 10 p.m. is often less than full. don't know what the timings are at SEN.

There is absolutely no way Stobart will compete with FR to Dublin. Handing that route over in April after keeping it warm was a major part of the deal.

It's possible Stobart could operate an early pm flight, but again if it proved popular they would stand aside as soon as they were asked to do so.

They're LGW, LTN, STN to DUB services are generally choca block stuffed so I think when people from around the general SEN catchment area learn you can hit DUB from SEN, then they'll likely select to fly from SEN over LGW or STN (or remotely, the LTN option too). I think you're right.

Similarly when folks in DUB learn you can land in SEN with none of the fuss you got to deal with at STN or LGW, plus be in Liverpool St in under the hour, I think it will work out fine for FR.

I don't think SEN has too much to worry about the LTN-Dublin route. Most pax are from around Bedfordshire/MK area,; Luton itself has a large Irish community and the North London area around Kilburn has also a large Irish community. Some overlap maybe with Stansted and you also have LCY if you want to pay a little more plus many more rotations.

Stobart Air is to operate flights for KLM Cityhopper this coming summer. KLM Cityhopper and Stobart Air have entered into a wetlease agreement, to be carried out with an E195. Stobart will operate 8 flights a day from Dublin.

Sounds like thats both E-195s accounted for? Or are they operating 4 return flights?

I think it's 4 return flights, however I'm not entirely sure about that. Also I wouldn't be surprised if KLM end up using the wetlease on other routes as well, as they did with Carpatair last year.