flybe expand
 

Have heard this morning that flybe., formerly British European have announced a load of new routes out of Southampton. Services to Jersey,Dublin,Belfast,Geneva and Milan from spring, to be followed by Nice and Barcelona later in the year. Also Milan out of Birmingham. Good to see that it is not all doom and gloom in the industry.

great news!!!

where did you get your information from??

i guess these will be on the new Q400's, unless you've heard different....

BPM

Milan from Birmingham?

BA (Maersk) run a scheduled service to MXP from BHX. Unusual choice of route for FlyBE concidering that Maersk are well established (flying into Milan for many years) and have return flights from £89.

I would have thought that they would open a new route which didn't have such stiff competition on it. :confused:

BPM,

The full Flybe SOU announcement is on their website, and was predicted on BBC Ceefax in this part of the World this morning.

Says they will be basing 4 aircraft initially (146 & Q400)

KLM (Cityhopper) are returning for the Summer schedule next Year also (does this mean SAY are pulling out?), as are Skybus to the Scillies.

So, things looking up at SOU (at least for the travelling public)despite the BACX cutbacks.

Great news, good to hear Flybe using the word 'expansion' again and continuing to make a positive effort to keep it's place in the market.

Excellent news
Does anybody know which a/c type(s) are going to operate those routes?
Are we withdrawing from other routes?
Just a shame that we have to discover these kind of things via PPRUNE.
:eek: :eek: :eek:

2 BE or not 2 BE, an internal e-mail went out to all staff nearly an hour prior to the media being informed in an attempt to ensure the majority of staff heard from the company as opposed to the media. Obviously for staff not at work, or indeed flying at the time it was impossible to pre-warn them, and still keep it an 'exclusive' for the press conference.

Good grief an internal email! When I worked at JEA as it was then we were lucky if the pidgeon made it to Belfast City. Tell me is Donkey Derby still managing the personnel side of things? Good luck if he is!!!

As a regular PAX from SOU, it's good to see someone trying to expand serices - not surprised to see BACX pull out of the Dublin service - my last flight back, their were only 6 of us on board. just hope this twice daily service is an early morning and an early evening one - it was great having to stay overnight due to the 3:30 last flight back :) :) . If anyone from south west trains takes note, I could commute to central Edinburgh faster than to central London !!!

Derbyram just to keep you in the picture none of the flight deck or cabin crew have a company email address.

Will Flybe be opening a base at Southampton or crewing it from elsewhere and if so will they be looking for additional flightdeck.

Notac ..... http://www.stopstart.freeserve.co.uk/smilie/rotfl.gif
That was a good one!!! http://www.stopstart.freeserve.co.uk/smilie/rotfl.gif

notac, i know that, but there are many staff and managers around the network whom are conected to the 'all user' e-mail system, and one would hope that information of this kind is quickly spread to all.

Hard to make up an excuse at this stage derbyram! :rolleyes: ....

http://www.stopstart.freeserve.co.uk/smilie/monkes.gif

Ah well I was at the Soton PC yesterday and here's the dope FlyBE will launch dailies from Soton to Milan and Geneva, twice dailies to Dublin and Belfast City and have at least three times daily to Jersey from March. In October they'll add Bacelona and Nice. And at dates yet specified Brussels, Copenhagen, Lyon, Toulouse, Edinburgh and Glasgow the routes will be operated using either Q400s or 146s (except Jersey which will stay Dash 8-300 until some more Q400s arrive).
Fleet wise all the exsisting Dash 8s plus the CRJs are for the chop and will be replaced with Q400s exactly how many Q400s is dependant on the deal they negotiate with Bomb on swopping the CRJs for Qs

Oh yeah forgot to mention the plan calls for up to 10 a/c to be based at Soton so I guess there will be a Soton crew base.

environmentally sensitive aircraft
 

"Flybe. brings low cost air fares to Southampton Pledges 150 new jobs in the region.

Flybe., Europe's largest independent regional airline, is to establish a key hub at BAA-owned Southampton Airport with the launch of five new scheduled routes from March 2003, the airline announces today (18 December, 2002). The move will create up to 150 jobs in the region and passengers flying from
Southampton will be able to benefit with permanently low fares from 29 one way on every route.

From Spring 2003 flybe. will launch the following new routes:-

Southampton to Milan Bergamo - daily services
Southampton to Geneva - daily services
Southampton to Dublin - twice daily services
Southampton to Belfast City - twice daily services
Southampton to Jersey - a minimum of three daily services (licence secured last week)

From Winter 2003 Southampton to Barcelona and Nice Flybe.'s Southampton services will initially support four aircraft, but the intention is to expand to a 10-strong fleet dedicated to Southampton to further services to Brussels, Copenhagen, Lyons, Toulouse, Edinburgh and Glasgow. "Our aim is to duplicate the strong presence we have at Birmingham at Southampton Airport," said Jim French. With 10 million people living within 90 minutes of the airport, Southampton Airport is an important gateway to central southern England, conveniently located between the M27 and M3 motorways and with a dedicated rail station adjacent to the passenger terminal."

The new routes from Southampton will operate with a mixture of BAe 146 and Bombardier Q400 aircraft. "These aircraft are among the most environmentally sensitive aircraft flying today, offering exceptionally low fuel consumption and low noise emissions, which are clearly going to be a major factor in airport operations in the future," noted French. (????????????????????????????????????????????)

Flybe. and its predecessor companies, Jersey European and British European have enjoyed a long association with Southampton Airport. The airline rebranded as Flybe. in July 2002 as a new generation of airline blending the high standard of service levels of the traditional airlines with the innovative practices and low fares of the low costs. Since the launch of flybe. this summer the airline has seen its online bookings increase from 6% in January 2002 to over 40% by November 2002."

FlyBE expand
 

FlyBE also intend to commence a daily service to Milan Bergamo Airport and the isle of Man from Birmingham.
Daza

Hi Xenia, nice to see you still have that chip on your shoulder. I don't need to make any excuses, i know that every effort was made to let as many staff know internally as possible before it went public.

Sorry, but don't understand what "a chip on your shoulder" means ... :confused:
:rolleyes:
Don't get me wrong derbyram! I am pleased to see Flybe finally expanding, hope crew managment will get better as well!
By the way ... there's a HUGE difference (geographycally) between Milan and Bergamo. Milan (LIN or MXP) or Bergamo Orio al Serio (BGY)?

Derbyram, you must be one of those well balanced types, with a chip on both shoulders:D