Don't forget most passengers, some of whom will read your comments, don't know anything about flying or engines. If you say they're poor what does that mean to them?

S'funny. I thought the 175 was the STD version and not the LR like the 195 is. In which case the range is, apparently, very similar.

With a MTOM of 37.5 tonnes and a full passenger load you can only get 8 tonnes of fuel on. Consequently with full fuel you'll only get 77 passengers on and that's before you take into account Flybe's reduced MTOM which is 2.5 tonnes less.

How far can you go on 5.5 tonnes of fuel? Not the Canaries.

8 tonnes?

Flybe now operate the 175 using an unrestricted MTOM......

Ok, so how far will 8 tonnes get you with a full load, 5.5 will only get you from Gatwick to Inverness with a decent headwind and no extra. The 195 needed about 7 tonnes minimum to go from SOU/EXT to Faro.

The Canaries is almost double the distance.

i think you have just answered your own question about long flights.

Interesting about face re the Sun Routes from SOU... in past years, the period first week Jan to second week February has traditionally been a period of 'no Flybe flights' to / from AGP. Not only have Flybe reversed their earler decision to stop all flights to ALC and AGP they are also covering the previousl 'dead period.

To Flybe I would say 'Well done guys.'

These routes are not, as someone has suggested, bucket and spade routes but are seen generally as the traditional 'airline of choice' for many of the expats resident on the CDS and CB who wish to fly without the hassles of the cattlemarket terminals like STN, LTN and LGW and the loco airlines.

Good on yer!

Now, if someone could do something about the piss poor public transport links from SOU to towns and villages to the east like Fareham Petersfield and Portsmouth which are currently non-existant without changing at either Eastleigh or Southampton I would be an even happier bunny. I dont like having to fork out 60 quid return for a taxi to Pompey...

LOL ... FlyBE, whichever way you dress it up ... are a LoCo airline ... "airline of Choice" my @ss :)

I don't disagree with them being 'just another loco' but the convenience of flying from smaller 'local' airports to many of the passengers and even the 2+2 layout of the Embraer's is probably enough for many to actually consider them as their 'airline of choice'.

'Airline of choice'
 

What other choice is there from SOU!??

That was part of my point, although if people do not 'choose' Flybe then they will head elsewhere to BOH or London, many people still use Flybe even though they are frequently more expensive than the alternatives I've mentioned.

OK I'll bite!

All I ask is civil treatment at all stages of my journey from the time I leave my front door to the time I arrive at the front door of my destination and in this respect Flybe meet my expectations...

From what I have seen year round, the load factors are pretty consistent; as I said among the expats out here Flybe are not seen as a bucket and spade outfit. Also, many of the pax on the SOU-AGP service use AGP because there is no other choice. They live in towns and villages well inland from the coast having moved there because of what at the time was a daily GRX-LGW service operated by Monarch.
When Monarch pulled the plug in 2007 under mounting opposition from the Ryanair dirty tricks department, these folks including myself were stuck with a possible 2 hour journey to Malaga and that in addition to an equally long journey 'home' from LGW. So even if Flybe dont meeet the standards of a traditional legacy airline, SOUas an airport suddenly becomes a good option. Again for these folks the only other option was GRX-STN until Ryan pulled the plug on that route too, but who the hell wants to fly into Stansted if they live on the Central South Coast?

Obviously there is no alternative so Airline of Choice is appropriate!

Exactly my point. For us Inlanders the availability of smaller local airports is definitely a plus. Monarch and Ryanair pulled out of GRX when subsidies were removed or refused, leaving GRX with internal flights only. After a long period in the doldrums GRX wwent International again; BA Cityflier announced a new service LON-GRX, great we thought... twenty minute drive to GRX then away... unfortunately to my mind, their choice of London airport was completely and utterly wrong... LCY... No matter what mode of transport one uses from the UK central South Coast, LCY is a minimum of two and a half hours away and involves multiple train and tube changes during peak travel times. LCY is fine if you live in London or Essex but to everyone else its a waste of space...

Selfish I know but a service from SOU to GRX (not operated by Ryan or Easy) would be my ideal... max travel time at both ends 30 minutes by car or taxi... hell I'd even cosider using Monarch on that route...

"They live in towns and villages well inland from the coast having moved there because of what at the time was a daily GRX-LGW service operated by Monarch."


I'm sure there are other factors at play but I find it strange that people would choose to move to and invest in a property based on the availability of a single flight back to the UK from a nearby airport. Surely if convenience of having a flight back to the UK is the sole and prime concern, one would locate near a bigger airport (in this case AGP) that offers a better range of flights to the UK so that if your chosen route is pulled there is more likely another that you could use in its place without then having to travel a distance to a different departure airport.


Having said that, Granada is a fine and lovely city and in this case I can see SOU-GRX as an possible route for BE, as well as BHX-GRX although whether these would suitable for year round ops is debatable.

I believe GRX is also quite useful for reaching some nearby ski slopes, more so and AGP is so it could probably work year round.

How did FlyBE treat you from the time you left your front door until the time you arrived at the airport? What was it, a chauffeur driven limo or what?

With respect, that's a slight daft analogy. Most people who travel full service travel in economy, and therefore wouldn't have access to such trappings. Moreover, those sorts of trappings aren't even available on internal European services by full service carriers in today's world - and intra European services is what Flybe does.

Flybe aren't a "full service" airline in the BA / LH long-haul sense, but I'd wager they offer a pretty similar product to those mainstrean carriers on European routes.

Perhaps ... but the poster states that FlyBE are providing him with civil treatment from the time he leaves his front door!

Are you suggesting that the poster is telling "porkies" ATNotts? :)

Interesting to see IAG have just disposed of nearly 11m shares in Flybe today. They have reduced their stake from 5% to less than 3% now.

Number of shares sold 10925847. This equates to 14.5% of the issued share capital of 75152881 1p shares at 31st March 2011. So yes BA have sold their entire holding

BA/IAG shareholding
 

Bean, the rights issue earlier this year changed things, BA still owns 3percent of FlyBe..

Here is more detail:

IAG starts selling Flybe stake
20 JUN 2014 14:46 GMT+01:00 (London) DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW
British Airways parent IAG has sold a batch of shares in UK regional operator Flybe Group, reducing its stake to less than 3%.

The airline group had held a 14.5% share of Flybe before the carrier carried out a new share issue earlier this year, which diluted IAG’s stake to 5%.

Flybe says that IAG, which had held 10.9 million shares in the company, has sold a batch of its stock which reduces its stake to less than 3%.

It has not clarified IAG’s remaining shareholding in Flybe.

At Flybe's current stock price the 5% stake would be worth around £13.5 million ($23 million).

British Airways took its original stake in Flybe as part of a 2006 transaction in which Flybe took over the BA Connect regional operation.

Q400 G-JECO diversion into Manchester last night after engine failure. Service was Southampton to Belfast City.

My memory of company law isn't as good as it was but if over 3% of shares are held by a person / company I think there are various additional rules to be followed in declaring one's stake; below 3% and one can be a little more anonymous publicly.

It is likely that BA still hold some shares in Flybe, even if it is worth just a thousand pounds - this will allow BA to send someone to the company AGM and listen to proceedings if they wish.