Flybe on the brink of collapse

ExoPolitic

There's nothing for Ryanair in flubes old network, or they'd of already out competed the off of it years ago.

BeardySi

Terrontress wrote: »

Belfast City must be desperate now, and Ryanair often takes others’ desperation to their advantage

738 can't take off fully loaded from Belfast City, it's why Ryanair pulled out of there on the first place

BigMoose

I hope someone takes on DUB-SOU soon as I use that route a lot. Prices are high and flights mostly seem fairly full. Lots of businesses (esp IBM) use that route instead of LHR so hopefully it's profitable or someone. That said, when the 4 of us travel and I'm paying for it, it's often cheaper to fly to Bristol and hire a car than the price of flights to SOU and get picked up by family....

Tabnabs

BigMoose wrote: »

I hope someone takes on DUB-SOU soon as I use that route a lot. Prices are high and flights mostly seem fairly full. Lots of businesses (esp IBM) use that route instead of LHR so hopefully it's profitable or someone. That said, when the 4 of us travel and I'm paying for it, it's often cheaper to fly to Bristol and hire a car than the price of flights to SOU and get picked up by family....

And a 2.5 hour drive don't forget. Gatwick would be faster, as would Heathrow.

BigMoose

Tabnabs wrote: »

And a 2.5 hour drive don't forget. Gatwick would be faster, as would Heathrow.

Bristol is only 1.5 hours to Winchester (where I'm actually going) depending on traffic in the town (airport on the wrong side of town), Heathrow always seems just as expensive as SOU and from what I recall Gatwick is well over 2 hours drive although it's been over 20 years since I last did that drive... Actually just looking at google maps there and gatwick is under 1.5 hours, guess the M25 has been improved a lot since I last did that trip

There is of course Bournemouth but no flights on a friday (when I last flew, I see that does change in April) and the timing of the sat flight makes that useless for a weekend visit.

Terrontress

BeardySi wrote: »

738 can't take off fully loaded from Belfast City, it's why Ryanair pulled out of there on the first place

Aer Lingus always seem to be fully loaded from BHD, is there a big difference in A320 and 738 in that regard?

I know that they were calling for an runway extension, but I thought that they could take off fully loaded if they are not fully fuelled. This meant more frequent refuelling which was was impacting profitability. The suspicion was though that Ryanair wanted to pay less.

I used to love the flight from STN to BHD. I regularly got it for £5 each way. A tenner for flights and then £30 on the Stansted Express!

Terrontress

BigMoose wrote: »

I hope someone takes on DUB-SOU soon as I use that route a lot. Prices are high and flights mostly seem fairly full. Lots of businesses (esp IBM) use that route instead of LHR so hopefully it's profitable or someone. That said, when the 4 of us travel and I'm paying for it, it's often cheaper to fly to Bristol and hire a car than the price of flights to SOU and get picked up by family....

I heard that SOU brings a lot of cruise ship passengers and these are the routes less likely to be reinstated quickly due to Coronavirus reticence to go on cruises.

PinOnTheRight

Terrontress wrote: »

Aer Lingus always seem to be fully loaded from BHD, is there a big difference in A320 and 738 in that regard?

I know that they were calling for an runway extension, but I thought that they could take off fully loaded if they are not fully fuelled. This meant more frequent refuelling which was was impacting profitability. The suspicion was though that Ryanair wanted to pay less.

Ryanair wanted a runway extension at BHD so they could launch European routes. When it was rejected, they cited that as the reason they were pulling out. There’s little money to made on domestics, particularly when selling £5 fares and the NI travellers tend to spend less onboard than the likes of those ex-London.

As for EI, what do you define as fully loaded? A full cabin of passengers to LHR on an A320 would give a take off weight well below that of an AGP/FAO flight since it’d only be carrying 5000-6000kg of fuel, and well within performance.

The AGP and FAO flights did have the odd performance issue during summer, particularly with full passenger load, high pressure, wet runway etc and needing 10/11/12000kg of fuel and made a stop in DUB/ORK on the way, but thankfully that only happened on a number of occasions.

Inquitus

BigMoose wrote: »

I hope someone takes on DUB-SOU soon as I use that route a lot. Prices are high and flights mostly seem fairly full. Lots of businesses (esp IBM) use that route instead of LHR so hopefully it's profitable or someone. That said, when the 4 of us travel and I'm paying for it, it's often cheaper to fly to Bristol and hire a car than the price of flights to SOU and get picked up by family....

I used to do DUB-SOU going to Basingstoke for business, much quicker than getting caught in the traffic around Gatwick. Flight was always full.

arccosh

good riddance.. have taken the Dub to Sou flight a lot and flew a lot internally with them... absolute rip

Doubt Ryanair will go into SOU, but would love to see RYR up their flights in Bournemouth if they didnt.

Maybe Aer Lingus regional might take up the SOU slack, as they already do Cork

Sheep Shagger

Can't see any Cork to SOU on AL at the moment, had a family trip booked and got replacement flights to LGW for €150 less than what we paid flybe - will easily cover rental car and diesel.

Waiting for the chargeback to come through for the flybe flights.

Noxegon

I used DUB-SOU a few times and had plans to use it again in a few weeks. Hopefully another carrier will pick it up.

arccosh

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Can't see any Cork to SOU on AL at the moment, had a family trip booked and got replacement flights to LGW for €150 less than what we paid flybe - will easily cover rental car and diesel.

Waiting for the chargeback to come through for the flybe flights.

ah, my bad, turns out they binned the route late last year

hope someone picks up the SOU - DUB route, Gatwick is a trek... Heathrow is a trek and pricey, Bournemouth is not frequent enough.. Bristol/Stansted are two other treks

Jack1985

I would imagine STK would have interest in DUB-SOU definitely along with many others DUB-CWL, DUB-EXT etc. However a number of things maybe stopping them picking them up, as of right now most airlines are monitoring costs by the hour with the current climate.

Tabnabs

Like a phoenix from the ashes:

PRESS RELEASE
Flybe Sale completed. New airline to launch this year.

14 April 2021

The Joint Administrators of the company previously known as Flybe Limited, now FBE Realisations 2021 Limited (in Administration), Simon Edel, Alan Hudson, Joanne Robinson and Lucy Winterborne of EY’s Turnaround and Restructuring Strategy team, have on 13 April 2021 completed the sale of Flybe’s business and assets to a new company affiliated with investment adviser Cyrus Capital. The new company previously known as Thyme Opco Limited, will now be renamed “Flybe Limited”.

Today’s announcement marks the successful completion of the asset purchase agreement, which was signed on 19 October 2020, and includes the transfer of Flybe jobs, as well as assets and other parts of the business to the buyer.

Simon Edel, Joint Administrator and EY-Parthenon Turnaround and Restructuring Strategy (TRS) Partner said: “Completion of the sale of Flybe is positive news for local communities previously served by Flybe. The launch of a new Flybe will enhance regional connectivity across the UK and create new job opportunities within the airline industry. Flybe stands to make an important contribution to local economies as they rebuild after the pandemic and as restrictions ease to allow an increase in air travel.”

A Flybe Limited spokesperson added: “We are extremely excited to announce the conclusion of almost six months of dedicated hard work by the great team at Flybe, the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the European Commission, and the many others who made this announcement possible. Today’s news represents a critical first step in our mission to accomplish the first-ever rescue of an insolvent British airline.

“Subject to further success with vaccinations and relaxation of travel restrictions, we plan to launch a new and much improved Flybe sometime this Summer on many of our former routes where there remains a critical need for a strong, reliable, and customer-focused airline. While our company will initially be smaller than before, we intend to grow, create valuable jobs, and make significant contributions to essential regional connectivity in the UK and EU.”

The Joint Administrators were appointed on 5 March 2020 following the significant disruption to the airline industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the Administration, Flybe was a UK-based independent regional airline in the UK carrying around eight million passengers a year between 81 airports across the UK and the rest of Europe.

https://no.flybe.com/

That company will enjoy 0 goodwill from the travelling public or industry professionals. The airline was squeezed dry at the end. Employees were treated poorly and the travelling public worse.

mickdw

[Deleted User] wrote: »

That company will enjoy 0 goodwill from the travelling public or industry professionals. The airline was squeezed dry at the end. Employees were treated poorly and the travelling public worse.

It will be judged on its offering now. Hopefully some routes out of knock again.

Tabnabs

The reality is aircrew need jobs, the industry has never seen a more difficult period, and passengers won't care what name is stamped on the outside of the metal tube, as long as it's bringing them somewhere different or sunny. Likely the perfect time for them to get back in the game.

California Dreamer

Deleted User wrote: »

That company will enjoy 0 goodwill from the travelling public or industry professionals. The airline was squeezed dry at the end. Employees were treated poorly and the travelling public worse.

Peoples memories are very short. Oh can I get from A to B for cheap....yeh book them!

LXFlyer

Deleted User wrote: »

That company will enjoy 0 goodwill from the travelling public or industry professionals. The airline was squeezed dry at the end. Employees were treated poorly and the travelling public worse.

It is presumably going to be owned and operated by a different management team - surely comparing it with the old company isn’t realistic?

LXFlyer

LXFlyer wrote: »

It is presumably going to be owned and operated by a different management team - surely comparing it with the old company isn’t realistic?

Cyrus were there for the worst of it.

Tenger

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Cyrus were there for the worst of it.

I doubt many of the travelling ouvlic were aware (or cared) about their financial backers.

basill

There is a load of discussion on this over on pprune. It would appear that the "profitable" former routes referred to in their press release are already well served by their competitors. So then it becomes a price war which will not bode well for a new startup. The jury is out on what terms the suppliers will require for credit remembering that many will have been burnt first time around.

Darc19

basill wrote: »

There is a load of discussion on this over on pprune. It would appear that the "profitable" former routes referred to in their press release are already well served by their competitors. So then it becomes a price war which will not bode well for a new startup. The jury is out on what terms the suppliers will require for credit remembering that many will have been burnt first time around.

Suppliers won't even think of the previous incarnation as the only similarity is the trading name.

They will look at the financial risk in supplying the new company based on that company's fundamentals.

JohnC.

They've now cancelled everything and ceased trading.

https://twitter.com/flybe/status/1619171652646096896

roadmaster

Why was the fleet grounded so much where they short technical staff on the ground?

A Dub in Glasgo

Stupid people running that airline - imagine going head to head with Easyjet and Loganair and thinking you could win with turboprops

Jack1985

The worst even for a start-up was they didn't even attempt to find a niche, they went straight into H2H competition. It's usually best to get a profitable niche before branching into attempting to take market share of the bigger beast's in this case.

I'm sure Emerald are happy up at BHD, probably a matter of time before they launch BHD-EMA/NCL.

Jack1985

Emerald moving quickly...

https://www.emeraldairlines.com/article/aer-lingus-regional-to-commence-flights-to-newcastle-and-nottingham-east-midlands-from-belfast-city-airport