Just one of those change curve things - anger, denial, blame others....

I think most forums / threads have a point of discussing the product the company is offering and the cabin is certainly part of the product. An area that's surprising and works in their favour is levelling with LM with catering, offering biscuits and drinks. A nice touch even if its the same as some of the competition.
How have the loads been over the weekend? Like most business its probably had some good loads so hopefully that carries on into the summer.

Does it really matter how experienced the crew is as long as they're delivering the product to the best of their ability?

Is this a long-term proposition? I saw it on the inaugural flight reviews and hoped it would be permanent, but assumed that it might have been for the publicity flights? Or is this temporary until they get some sort of Buy-On-Board infrastructure rolled out?
Standard Class on the train wouldn’t give refreshments, but First Class usually would. I guess it depends who they feel they are competing with and which passengers they want to attract?

Again just because you don’t want to hear or read it doesn’t mean everyone has to agree and if we don’t we get called names or told to shut up. I could equally write shut up about it but then there’s no value in the forum.

Let’s keep it civil.

They say the same things again and again because they hold an honest belief that they're true. You saying "shut up" isn't going to win anyone over, and is, as you well know, only going to get you banned. We can't add anything new to the past arguments at the mo, so let's see how things pan out operationally and commercially. Let's debate the wisdom of their route choices, their finances and their strategy and, as part of that, let's be careful some folk don't get away with rewriting history.

Your username is an interesting one, I bet you aren't a huge fan of Eastern? That's how some people feel about flybe2.

You've got that totally wrong, he never worked for Air Southwest as he will tell you. Well done

By the way, i don't know him, i've just read his knowledgable professional posts from the past
In case anyone tries to dredge up previousy highly inaccurate posts. I am not posting under multiple names and therefore i am not Airsouthwest but, i do agree with a lot of what he says

The problem with this thread seems to be a select few going back to the same points... arguing over essentially ego / difference of opinion even when the conversation moves on. Lets face it theres going to be a lot of talk both pro and con like all threads on here. Theres going to be critique of what they're doing or not doing etc. But at the end of the day this is a forum to discuss rumours etc.

So to that end...

What have the loads been like over the weekend? Plus when are the next tranche of Aircraft being delivered, I see theres still a Dash at Exeter, is this pre delivery MX? It is somewhat funny how flybe are using Exeter Aerospace that are now owned by Dublin Aerospace that has the same owner as Emerald. Hopefully the quality of the product Exeter Aerospace is somewhat higher than that previously offered.

Wanna, there's one at Malta on a recently signed contract as well

I did see that on Medavia Socials, good to see they're back maintaining the Dash after they ceased operating their own. If youve ever been to their facility in Malta its very impressive.

It will all come down to cost and availability. This is probably an area where the clean slate idea rings true, go where you can get the best value MX. Medavia are well regarded and part owned by Air Nostrum (or the group that owns them). Exeter may also not have the capacity, its always incredibly busy there, more so than before.

Re the emergency divert, if flybe won't be flying to Exeter diverting might no be so easy, no ground handling contract, no assistance etc. Reality is most stuff can and does get fixed on the line. Not many airlines had or have the luxury of a true in-house 145 and large hangar facility. Plus im sure the crew would rather position to Malta than Exeter!!

Nice one Wanna. Bit of humour whiçh this thread sorely needs

Just before the previous incarnation of Flybe went under, we sent a few frames to Medavia (JECP for example...) for heavy checks.

At the time, it was said to have been more cost effective to fly a Dash 8 the 3hr+ block time to Malta than it was to conduct the maintenance in house...

Interesting point . I can imagine it to be permanent on the Domestic routes and perhaps the AMS , but what about the slog that will be SOT/BHX - Avignon and SOT- Toulon ?

I can't think that the CAA has got any problem provided that the AOC holder has adequate oversight of its contracted maintenance activities and the contracts are in place with the line maintenance provider - which they would both have to be as a basic matter of compliance. It's perfectly fine for an operator to contract out all of its line maintenance if it wished to - as many do.

Its very common for smaller airlines to contract out even their line MX let alone MRO work. The airline (AOC) would still have a CAM, Quality etc but the actual stamp is often contracted out to a third party. STS and Medavia are both reputable organisations and both will have to hold UK CAA approvals rather than the historic EASA approvals, so the CAA arguably should now have much greater oversight. The Manx issue was to do with aircraft operators, IE manx2 had no AOC or even any quality / compliance / Safety of its own but positioned itself as having all. Each AOC that Manx2 used was then responsible for ensuring they complied etc.

The other thing to consider is whether Exeter Aerospace even wanted the business, they're not short of work, Logan, Eastern, Cityflyer, Emerald etc all going through there. ATR is the new Dash at EGTE. Its possible they turned the offer down and Flybe went looking elsewhere. Another benefit of the new business is making the best choice rather than sticking with what they knew as 'thats what we've always done'.