BHD to Glasgow xld, as are todays two BHX to GLA.

positioning flights from EXT to BHX and AMS to BHD this afternoon.

I would hate to be relying on Flybe to get me home for Christmas. When I was in the regional business, Christmas Eve was one of our more nail biting days (we didn’t fly on Christmas Day) as we had loads of full flights and it really mattered to us to get everyone where they wanted to be. We had crew, ops staff and engineers on standby for Christmas Day in case events conspired against us but I’m happy to say that we had a 100% success record in getting everyone, and all the aircraft, where they were supposed to be and at about 22.00 there was the happy job of calling all the standbys to tell them they wouldn’t be needed and could have Christmas Day off.
I recount this because, IMHO, it is the necessary ethos for a regional airline. Passengers have to trust that you will get them where they want to be at (at least) roughly the right time. While I have no doubt that many of the current Flybe staff are pulling their hair out at the moment, they cannot carry on as they are.

Fog
 

In respect of BHX - no

Few if any BHX airlines cancel flights the night before based on a met forecast the next day for fog. BHX did have generator issues earlier in the week but overall after that I think only one or two flights been lost to fog and one of those was aircraft or crew related (I assume Cat1) and in fact there have been more diversions in than out.

It got worse later today with the aircraft that positioned in to operate the 2 Glasgow flights and remaining Edinburgh unfortunately is still on the ground in BHX after the first Glasgow resulting in the early afternoon Edinburgh departing over 4 hours late this evening using the inbound Amsterdam aircraft. This has meant that the outbound Belfast cancelled making a 100% failure rate on that route today and due to the last of the BHX night closures, the final Glasgow is also cancelled. Just to add balance, Aer Lingus Regional also cancelled the early morning Belfast City today the second flight yesterday, the afternoon flight Wednesday and first two flights Monday so not only Flybe disrupting passengers.

I know the Flybe board are ultimately responsible for the decision to go with the Dash 8 and we all knew about their reputation during Flybe 1 but I do have some sympathy with their current plight as I doubt few could have estimated this level of aircraft issues. The disappointing aspect is that they seem to be holding their own in respect of passenger loads on their BHX services but for how long?

Pete

Why sympathy
 

Difficult to be sympathetic when the only objective of this outfit seems to be to hang on to LHR slots at any cost. Terrible planning all round and this sort of disruption is what gives the rest of the industry a bad name. Flybe management seriously need a reality check.

Do Flybe still use STS at BHX. Not noticed their aircraft using the hangar or apron by STS.
Just wondered if the engineering is outsourced to save costs and if that is having an effect on serviceability

Exeter is main engineering dept

Good to see the past couple of days have been much better with fewer cancellations. Have they got extra planes? Or just a spell of good luck?

I would think luck as they don't seem to have had any tech issues. The second ex LOT aircraft was delivered today but not to BHX so one presumes it will be in for maintenance.

Reported elsewhere that the 2nd ex-LOT airframe (EXTA) which arrived in EXT from MLA yesterday is due out into service around 15th Dec, along with ECOR which is apparently there on planned maintenance.

Next route start is BHX-GVA on 17th Dec.

I would think that with all the train strikes they could make good money on the NCL LHR route if they could manage to run a reliable service.

They certainly got some very good comments from a columnist in the Times yesterday who had used the service. (Which, fortuitously, wasn't one of the flights that got cancelled).

It would appear that flights planned to start from SOU to MAN and I think EDI from before the end of the Winter season have been removed from the booking engine.

Maybe the start has been delayed to after the end of March, or maybe shelved altogether?

Southampton-Glasgow looks to have disappeared as well

More aircraft being added to the fleet, yet more routes being canned. Something doesn't add up.

I can only say at least they have done it with reasonable time. Much better than the last few cancellations which were incredibly close to flights starting.

Indeed. I think that perhaps they are just rejigging the schedules around, after all they haven't actually released S23 so far as I can see. On the upside at least with so many DH4s available and due they should have cover for the rest of the winter even given more tech debacles.

Reported elsewhere from folks on the inside that the SOU-MAN/EDI/GLA routes have had start delayed until after Winter/Summer season switch at the end of March.
Apparently down to concerns around aircraft availability (as it will need one to be based at SOU).
Hints also at other SOU routes to be announced with the Summer schedules.

Very interesting. Going off on a tangent here, but my one criticism of flybe-v1 was that they had an annoying habit of whenever they announced a new route, they'd stick a hint in along the lines of 'we are looking to add additional routes to Scandinavia and mainland Europe at some point in the future'. Quite clever really - they once managed to get a front page story in our local newspaper when all they had actually announced was a twice weekly flight to Inverness.

Clever
 

If they were clever, V.1 would still be in business.

Summer schedule now up on the Flybe website. Only a couple of new routes so they will hopefully be able to stabilise the operation somewhat ahead of next winter.