Easyjet and Flybe

[Maddog Red]

Now that Easyjet are going up against Flybe on the BRS/TLS route, what do you think the expected outcome will be?
Is their enough traffic for both airlines?
Will Flybe or Easyjet role over and cease the route?
Will a nice price war begin?

[GBALU53]

Flybe use a Dash 8 against Easyjets Airbus so it all depends on the price who will win the battle i think.

[Devonair]

I reckon Flybe might move 110km down the M5 to EXT. Time will tell. Bergerac is selling very well from Devon.

[MerchantVenturer]

Flybe uses a 146 jet on BRS-TLS Mon-Fri and a Dash 8-400 at weekends, all done on a W formation of course, as the airline has no based aircraft at BRS.

Until TLS, apart from EDI and GLA, I can't think of another scheduled route already served out of BRS that easyJet have come in on, and that was in the days of Go. They did commence Hamburg around the same time as OLT started their service to the north German city but I don't know who had the idea first.

In fact, there was also Newcastle, served then by Brymon/BA, and easyJet turned that into the busiest route between two English provincial cities, so the big Orange seems to know what it is doing at BRS.

As well as Flybe and easyJet serving TLS from BRS (or at least easyJet will do so from mid summer), there is also a daily Mon to Fri service for aerospace personnel from Filton to Toulouse. Three daily services from Bristol to Toulouse, even with the aerospace connection, might seem like overkill.

With easyJet's apparent strong commitment to BRS (it is reputedly one of their most profitable bases) and Flybe's less than wholehearted approach to the airport, it does not take a rocket scientist to suggest which airline would be most likely to pull out of the route.

According to the BRS MD easyJet will continue to add one aircraft a year at the BRS base (no 9 arrives in July) and they will have to find routes that pay. La Rochelle and Marseille are two of the new ones and I wouldn't be surprised to see Bordeaux (one of Bristol's twin cities, albeit Flybe already flies BRS-BOD), and possibly other French destinations, follow next year if the new French routes prove a success.

If this were to happen I guess it is possible, perhaps probable, that Flybe would pull out of BRS altogether. After all they seem to have found plenty to keep them busy at the likes of EXT, NWI, SOU and other airports.

This would leave mean that JER and BHD would also go but Air Southwest already competes with Flybe on the BRS-JER and might well step in on BRS-BHD in Flybe's absence.