I have known quite a few airline CEOs, real ones not armchair and there are a few of them whose eyes glaze over at the mention of finance.

I seem to remember it being said some years ago that pilots shouldn't run airlines, but then there is a case for saying accountants shouldn't either!

Did the press call take place ? If not, when is the new date for it ?

Well that’s the million dollar question! We keep being told by the (new) Flybe fans that everything will be revealed next week………but next week never seems to come.

Surely they can’t be planning a launch for S22, that window is quickly going as people are making plans now for summer. I wonder what their daily cash burn is right now with all the salaries outgoing with no income. Not insignificant I wouldn’t have thought.

Alternatively there won’t be much start up required if they are only going to be serving 2 or 3 routes initially!

Teams was probably down!!!

First Belfast crew have graduated and third ‘frame arrives shorty so I would expect some sort of publicity soon.

Be great to see Flybe back on the BHD-CWL route in the future !

Is there a Flybe announcement to be made at Belfast City this week?

A return is what we all expect the question is when?

I'm hearing that a Flybe announcement should be before month end but probably not this week - so that rather points towards Monday 28th! In the same snippet, I'd also heard there was some issue with the Heathrow slots but don't profess to know exactly what.

And On and On it goes!
Could somebody please wake me up when something actually happens!!!

What’s not covered from Belfast now that a resurrection of BE could go after - Doncaster, Norwich? Or are they planning to bop up and slug it out toe to toe with the other regional airlines who are now operating these routes at BHD, two years after Flybe folded? If that’s the plan, hope the goldmine runs deep.

Don’t forget Cardiff

It may not be that simple. Over the weekend, I looked to book a BHD-MAN sector for mid-April, only to find that no carrier has flights on sale. The Aer Lingus A320 is gone ... presumably back to Dublin. But the replacement Emerald AT76 services are not yet loaded for bookings. It is possible that FlyBe 2.0 could launch flights from BHD before Emerald does. They're both new operations. I'm not predicting which will enter the market first, just pointing out that neither are on sale yet - so FlyBe could still be the one with first-mover advantage on some former Aer Lingus routes if they launch before Emerald do.

Of course, I acknowledge that EasyJet operate BFS-MAN throughout. But those routes operated by the Aer Lingus A320 from BHD may be left temporarily vacant.

If EIR do take up every route they've announced they will then there won't be any gap in service it will go from from one to the other carrier and I've even seen it suggested they'd use damp leasing of BA cityflyer a/c if needed.

I'd virtually bet on the fact the reason they've not announced yet is it's a game of cat and mouse and strongly suspect they'll not go head to head on any route. EZY were already doing BFS-MAN Ozzy before BE went bust, definitely room for two carriers in the market - not sure three would work for long. Also if BE launched BHD-MAN and BHX as is being suggested that's basically the two aircraft they have spoken for, it would need a minimum of three daily rotations to give them any sort of commercial edge.

They might offer BHD-LPL. Its unserved and the BFS-LPL route is a very busy one, so they could see an opportunity there.

3rd aircraft acquired apparently (JECP) according to Jethro's

EMA would be a good choice. Flybe use to have 3 or 4 rotations a day and always busy. Currently only served from International by Easy 4 times a week and nothing currently scheduled beyond end of March.

I think you're right there. Even though business travel may never return to pre-pandemic levels there must surely be a demand for 2 x daily M-F morning and evening service between Belfast and EMA to serve what remaining business travel demand there is. You could say the same for LBA and CWL. BHX and MAN may be less certain, depends a lot on how quickly Emerald get their act together (and indeed how long it takes Flybe to do likewise!).

I suspect that if Flybe are to commence at the season changeover at the end of March they'll need to have their hands on at least 5 Dash 8s by then, but time alone will tell.

mart901 - Which bit of my post led you to believe that I was unaware of EasyJet's history on BFS-MAN? I even referred to them. Please don't be condescending like that. Most people using this forum are or have been in the industry and are well aware of the basics. In my case, I've been using (and working with) flights between Belfast and MAN for years.

The point I made was that after Aer Lingus A320 service is withdrawn towards the end of March, nothing is on sale on BHD-MAN. Not Emerald, not FlyBe 2.0, not BA Cityflyer. None of them. So, as I said, FlyBe 2.0 does still have the opportunity to be first mover as the route resumes. Meanwhile, if any of them want some actual bookings (the important bit) they need to open their planned services for reservations. They won't be getting my mid-April booking anyway. I've made other arrangements. April travellers are making their plans now. If any carrier plans to serve the route by then (and perhaps they don't intend to), then they need to be accepting bookings already. They're probably best advised to hold off until at least May at this point.