looks to be Flybe have got back the remedy bmi slots?

Flybe have acquired 86 weekly slots at London Heathrow from British Airways - these are listed for a Dash-8 (78 seat) aircraft with Edinburgh listed with 50x weekly (5x daily) and Aberdeen listed with 36x weekly (3x daily flights)

Ah! The new 10 and 12 day weeks!:)

That's a lot of sectors for 1 dash 8 to undertake (well i say 1 dash 8 as that's the number of aircraft registered to them so far) Time will tell tho..........

So they intend to compete against the A320Neo with Dash 8 equipment?

2 slots required for each flight from Heathrow - take off and landing!

Makes sense now.

Isn't this just the old airline getting the slots back as per the grandfathering rights?

The old airline's OL still hasn't been revoked as the appeal is still awaiting its outcome so it would make sense that they have been awarded the slots?

I would be very surprised if any new version of the airline would want to launch on those routes!

I agree, jumping into the bear pit that is Scotland / London domestics without codeshare / interlining arrangements up against BA that will be aggressively pricing when eventually the world reopens would be total folly. Of course the slots don't have to be used for the rotes specified, but I am struggling to work out which routes Flybe2 could possibly make work from LHR, except NQY or EXT, even perhaps LPL but that would be extremely iffy given the rail links to the capital.

There are probably many "safer" routes from the UK regions to mainland Europe that I would have thought they would be considering before LHR.

SOU-CDG immediately springs to mind and has yet to be taken up

Perhaps EXT or CWL CDG as well. BHX to STR/LYS/TXL/HAJ/BER, not sure if BHX to NOC has been taken up yet either. Then EDI/GLA to EMA used to do reasonably well, but to do that they would need a base in either of the Scottish airports or EMA, and I just can't see the latter happening unless they believe EMA/CDG is worth a shot again. I'm sure that as part of the purchase they bought the detailed analysis of what worked and what didn't under the old regime and if they try to start what were financial holes again they'll go down the same pan as Flybe Mk.1.

There are niches but it will have to be slow and steady on a "big bang" approach as I really doubt the owners pockets are going to be deep enough to support too many new or restarted routes in one hit.

If every route Flybe served was as successful and profitable as people on here claim they wouldn’t be gone.

It’s madness for new Flybe to launch LHR-Scotland routes as its first operation and a sure fire way to burn millions.

They are not going to make money either by spreading themselves all over the place with one plane here and one there. Post Covid I’d go for smaller bases offering key routes along with more leisure focused in the in between. Basically go for the BA Cityflyer approach. LCY might be a good shout. Their ops are massively down so might be a good opportunity for a good deal and still plenty of gaps in services from there. Few French routes, northern Spain, Scandinavia. All good opportunities.

Becoming a feeder airline for Star Alliance at LHR isn’t going to work. Flybe1 failed trying it. BMI didn’t succeed doing it. Virgin couldn’t make it work.

I absolutely agree - trying to play the connection card at Heathrow and Manchester doesn't sound like a sound model. Agree with LCY and maybe places like SOU, EXE, NWI, DSA where there are gaps for an airline with smaller aircraft. France would surely be on the cards, maybe Holland, Germany, ski flights to Switzerland (Berne?) and as you said, Northern Spain.

CWL is crying out for someone to cover EDI, DUB, CDG and JER. Given the Welsh Government and CWL were willing to fork out for Project blackbird, and CWL-EDI has regularly been noted as one of the biggest Ex Flybe routes still not taken up, I'm sure a deal can be done. The issues before were they were operated by the Embraer at probably too high frequencies to protect the yield (sometimes 3 daily).

Do I still get £200 when I pass go, or are we playing a different game? :ok:

toledoashley

Connecting traffic was 'icing on the cake' for FlyBe at MAN. P2P was the higher volume 'bread and butter'. Plenty of P2P business still to compete for in that market. Probably an element of interline business as an incremental top-up too. But P2P demand will determine whether any revised business model will stand or fall at MAN.

Connecting only works if you can keep to schedule.

ATNotts

LHR-LPL could be good if we get out of the covid crisis and UK bound tourism returns. The city is a big tourist destination for overseas visitors, however can't see many purely domestic passengers now as the train is so fast. Or LPL-CDG is available as EasyJet appear to have suddenly dropped it.

Surely some opportunities at East Midlands to Amsterdam, Glasgow, Edinburgh? Even down to Newquay etc.

I wouldn't want to go into a price war with another airline or against the train at the moment in this environment, that could be a blood bath.

I am hoping that BHX will be their main focus and main base as so many unserved routes and BHX was their biggest base.

BHX5DME - would the fact that you live in/near Bimringham have anything to do with your preference of BHX as Flybe's main focus ?