Flybe. New Order

great news for SOU – a niche market clinched there by Flybe

Within just days of commencing new services out of Southampton, FlyBE., the low fares airline for the regions, has announced even more new routes, positioning it ahead of BA to become the airport’s biggest carrier.

FlyBE. announced today (08 April 2003) that it is further expanding its Southampton hub with new daily flights to Alicante in Spain and Bergerac in France. The airline is also adding the Balearic island of Ibiza to its route network with a busy weekend schedule.

The new flights, with fares starting from just £29 (plus taxes and charges), will commence on June 27 and are in addition to Belfast City, Dublin, Jersey, Geneva and Milan Bergamo, which started last week. Flights to Murcia, Malaga and Toulouse take off on May 19, which together with the airline’s existing Guernsey services, will total 12 FlyBE. routes from Southampton this summer.

“Our positioning as Southampton’s low fares airline has been met with phenomenal response,” said FlyBE.’s General Manager, Market Development, Ian Taylor. “Passengers are asking us why no-one has offered these services before. This reaction, quantified by almost 150,000 bookings taken so far this year, has encouraged us to realise our plans to expand the Southampton network earlier than first envisaged.”

FlyBE. expects to carry 900,000 passengers in its first year of operation from the central southern airport, enabling Southampton’s desire to surpass the one million-passenger mark sooner than anticipated.

David Cumming, Managing Director of BAA-owned Southampton Airport, commented: “This is a great Easter present for travellers in the region. FlyBE. has firmly established its base here at Southampton Airport and has expanded its route network to 12 destinations. This will be the first time that travellers will be able to benefit from scheduled services to the holiday hot spots of Ibiza and Alicante plus direct services to the French region of Dordogne with daily flights to Bergerac.”

Speaking at the launch event on 31 March, FlyBE. Managing Director, Jim French, said that FlyBE. is looking to deliver more than 20 routes from Southampton over the next two years. The plan is part of the airline’s wider strategy to rebalance its network to offer a 50/50 split with leisure and business routes. “There was no low fare airline serving the central southern UK region with a catchment area embracing the south coast, south west, Thames Valley and south west London – this gave us the opportunity to create a winning formula,” said French. “We are delighted at how the whole region has welcomed what we are doing,” he added.

FlyBE. is Europe’s largest independent regional airline with principal operating bases at Southampton, Belfast City, Birmingham and the Channel Islands. More than three million passengers will travel with FlyBE. this year.

Milan would probably fill a 146 like most of the Flybe. SOU routes. Proving very popular bookings outstriped. Look at the new expansion already (Ibiza, Bergarac, Murcia etc)

significantly better!

Faster with half the fuel consumption.

esp for example on those routes such as Milan where the pax levels are currently not high enough to fill a 146 for example. Just as a thought what is the CRJs performance like compared to the 146?

I know there is a bit of a dilemma with the CRJs, personally I cannot understand what is happening there. Nevertheless, the CRJs have served their purpose though they are not economically sound. They only had 4 for a start so they were hard to maintain plus there were not routes that suited the aircraft except longer European routes like Toulouse where they could money. They were also not suitable for the AF codeshare because they could not operate any aircraft on the routes that AF operated therefore the CRJ was out of the window.
The CRJ 700/900 is probably better because:
1- It is not operated by AF
2- Flybe. fly more routes to continental Europe.
3-Any order would be in a large number compared to the -200
4-Better economics on the -700/900?

FlyBE

Announced 23 Apr, an order for 17 Dash 8-400’s, with an option for 20 more.

GJECC CRJ200 7434 Fr disp – Fr Air Sahara as VT-

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Updates from jethros

the CRJ-200 dilemma is rather interesting if they take the -700/900 on board. I remember then going balisitic with BAe when they took on board some ex Thai 146-300 a/c. The pilots couldn’t familiarise themselves with the differant layout/systems/spec on the a/c so they ended up been traded in for differant -300s. Its amazing how supposidly identical models can have such differances in operational capabilities

yeah that’s what I heard as well. I think it would be a good move for them, they could also get rid of some of the BAe 146-200s that they have been trying to lay off for a while.

From my understanding the ERJ 170 prototype has been down to EXT. Flybe. were interested though only if they could do an exchange for some of Flybe’s current aircraft (CRJ’s). That is what I read, not sure if that is the case.

Surely the ERJ170/190 would be more sutible for the likes of flybe. At least they will be cleared for London City. We’ll what and see I guess.

Ah right OK. Basically anythings possible then!

The company is very indecisive just like BA. We will have an LCY hub, nope. We will use the CRJ 200, nope. We will go to Brussels, no. We will call ourselves Jersey European, no British, no flybe. See what I am getting at? On the other hand it is a good airline and it is doing brilliant at the moment.

But yes according to a few sources the CRJ 700/900 is being considered. Justplanes reported it last week:
Flybe. is possibly in final negotiations for an order from Bombardier for the Canadair RJ700 and/or RJ900. The order could be for a total of 35 to 45 aircraft including options.

In the feature on FlyBe in last months Airliner World they said the CRJ was not suited to their business model, and the routes they operated.
Why the change of heart?

Yup offically announced, check flybe.com for info. Also expect to see a CRJ 700/900 order.

Flybe. are also now threatening to pull off the JER-GCI-EXT and JER-GCI-BHX routes because the passengers are just not there for the routes. Unless both the Guernsey and Jersey Transport Authorities cut landing fees by 50% then Flybe. will be leaving the routes. Quote from thisisjersey.com,
‘On Exeter in particular and on the Birmingham-CI routes at times, 78 seats could be too large for the current twice-daily services,’ he said. ‘It may be that we will have to reconsider the operations.’

The average Joe bloggs these days takes on a very different attitude when flying these days.

Assumptions made are –
1) should be first in line for an upgrade
2) if there is one empty seat on the aeroplane it should be next to their seat
3) no kids on their flights please
4) reading newspapers during the demo show everyone else they are an experienced traveller
5) don’t do charter, it’s for common people
6) don’t do props. Props are for boats!
7) etc, etc

The travelling public these days expect to see a shiny jet. It’s the same as when you pass your PPL and you take a mate flying for the first time. Most people check out on a 4 seat Piper rather than a 4 seat Cessna because the visual appearance fulfils the image in the friends eyes.

regards
wys

I once flew LGW to TIA on Interflug IL18, it took 4hrs 25 mins to go little less than LGW-CFU. Enjoyed every minute!

personally as mentioned in the Flybe article in AW March 2003 i could see for a small airline such as Flybe the Q400 competing with the jets on shorter runs in the UK – ok maybee not as glamourous as the E145 which flies out of Leeds to a number of UK dests, but the SAAB 340 it replaced was nowhere near as modern as the Q400. I dont see why the general public dont give it more of a chance

Turboprop down to Milan – Im surprised people dont refuse to fly on it!

In PPRUNE, a flybe member of cabin crew mentioned how many passengers see the props on the Q400 when it flys longer distances and wont fly.
Im sure that was before the Milan flights.

Maybe the Q400 has proved itself popular with the passengers.

Regards

Luke