Flybe

[Finger66]

Does this mean they have given up on the acquisition trail altogether or is there now another target in mind? Or to be totally argumentative (unlike me I know lol) does this remain a smoke screen for what will eventually happen?

 

[Bigman]

How come an Eastern SAAB was working the Belfast this morning?

 

[lbaspotter]

How come an Eastern SAAB was working the Belfast this morning?

An Eastern Airways aircraft is been leased by Flybe to operate from its Belfast City base. Looking on the flybe website it’s scheduled to operate the reinstated weekday mid morning BE731/732 BHD-LBA-BHD rotations from today right up until Monday May 7th.

The Eastern Airways Belfast City based aircraft is booked to operate flybe flights to Glasgow, London City, Leeds/Bradford. Firstly this week showing as operated by Saab 2000 then from Thursday onward using Embraer 170. Meanwhile a Jetstream 41 will operate from Belfast City to both Isle of Man and Newcastle.

 

[twevsmiff]

The SAAB operated the 729/30 early flight this morning

 

[lbaspotter]

The SAAB operated the 729/30 early flight this morning

Eastern Airways Saab 2000 will operate the following LBA-BHD Rotations.

Monday 26th
BE729 = BHD 06:40 - LBA 07:40 / BE730 = LBA 08:05 - BHD 09:50
Wednesday 27th
BE729 = BHD 06:40 - LBA 07:40 / BE730 = LBA 08:05 - BHD 09:50
BE731 = BHD 10:50 - LBA 11:45 / BE732 = LBA 12:15 - BHD 13:10
BE735 = BHD 15:25 - LBA 16:25 / BE736 = LBA 17:10 - BHD 18:10
BE737 = BHD 18:35 - LBA 19:35 / BE737 = LBA 20:00 - BHD 21:00

Eastern Airways, Embrear 170 Jet will operate the following weekday rotation

Thursday March 28th running up until Monday May 7th.
BE731 = BHD 10:50 - LBA 11:45 / BE732 = LBA 12:15 - BHD 13:10

 

[oldendays]

Eastern ATR72 G-IACZ is operating today's BE731 from Belfast City.

 

[twevsmiff]

SAAB 2000 G-CFLU(Eastflight 032P) positioning in from somewhere in France(1540)

 

[lbaspotter]

SAAB 2000 G-CFLU(Eastflight 032P) positioning in from somewhere in France(1540)

Looks like Eastern Airways are trying to get out of a bloody big mess after this mornings mass flight cancellations.

• Saab 2000, G-CFLU as mentioned by twevsmiff has just positioned RDZ-LBA (Rodez) as EZE32P
• Saab 2000, G-CIEC is working the afternoon's southbound ABZ-LBA BE7606 service.
• Saab 2000, G-CERZ is working this afternoon's BHD-LBA BE735 service.
• BAe Jetstream 41, G-,MAJK is operating the northbound SOU-LBA BE7605 service.

 

[lbaspotter]

The following Flybe.com Leeds - Belfast City flights were operated by Eastern Airways Saab 2000 aircraft today.

Saab 2000, G-CERZ
BE730 = LBA-BHD
BE731 = BHD-LBA
BE732 = LBA-BHD
BE735 = BHD-LBA
EZE38P = LBA-ABZ (Positioned out empty to Aberdeen)
Saab 2000, G-CFLU
EZE32P = RDZ-LBA (Positioned in empty from Rodez)
BE736 = LBA-BHD
BE737 = BHD-LBA
BE738 = LBA-BHD

 

[White Heather]

Presumably all these Saab 2000 flights on the Belfast routes translates into a capacity cut on each flight? I would imagine that the Saab holds perhaps 20 (ish) less pax than the Dash 8 Q400. Given that Easter is coming up, that is surprising as the Belfast route is usually very busy over the Easter period.

 

[lbaspotter]

Presumably all these Saab 2000 flights on the Belfast routes translates into a capacity cut on each flight? I would imagine that the Saab holds perhaps 20 (ish) less pax than the Dash 8 Q400. Given that Easter is coming up, that is surprising as the Belfast route is usually very busy over the Easter period.

Like i said yesterday was a one off. Flybe were short of an aircraft at the Belfast base so leased to Eastern Saab 2000 for the day. Its returned to normal with all 5x flights been Dash 8-Q400 operation today.

 

[Seasider]

Having read TLY's post on the Newquay thread, it is interesting that LBA was third behind MAN/LGW in passengers carried. They only just beat BHX but with a service from DSA as well, it is a good achievement.

 

[paully]

Just picked up a story on the `other side` that LBA-Aberdeen is not available after 3rd June..I did a dummy booking and sure enough it is not available. LBA to Southampton continues at 3 times a day in both directions and appears to be operated by a Jetstream 41, according to a baggage warning on the front of the booking page.

Hopefully a malfunction of the system and not another route, in fact the only route, to Scotland lost?

 

[lbaspotter]

I'm not yet 100% convinced that Eastern Airways are dropping the Leeds/Bradford - Aberdeen route. It looks to me that the making some scheduled changes possibly due to some of the Saab 2000's be sold.

Anyway I tweeted Flybe, Eastern Airways, Leeds/Bradford and Aberdeen Airports this morning and got the following not so long ago from Flybe.

View attachment 8514

 

[Finger66]

I have often thought that BE/T3 have been missing a trick here. Basically there is no reason for aircraft to be LBA based. If they had an aircraft based in ABZ that could op ABZ - LBA -SOU and vice versa twice a day with another aircraft based in SOU doing the same. That increases capacity and frequency on all three routes thus providing greater customer choice. Now if, and it's a big if, the LBA - ABZ route is to be dropped in its own right then why not have an ABZ based unit op ABZ -GLA -LBA and vice versa twice a day. Or perhaps that might be something LM are interested in doing. LBA - SOU could remain stand alone. Lots to ponder me thinks and I unfortunately suspect we haven't heard the last of this. Poor customer service and reliability may just have caught up with T3

 

[a300boy]

The bad weather at Leeds during the winter has played havoc when this sort of operation has been tried before.
You would need a Cat 3 equipped aircraft to have a chance of making this work year round.

 

[Finger66]

The bad weather at Leeds during the winter has played havoc when this sort of operation has been tried before.
You would need a Cat 3 equipped aircraft to have a chance of making this work year round.

Very valid point but is that really any different to an aircraft operating through LBA at any time of the day. Bad weather is not restricted to certain hours of the day although I appreciate its easier to depart in it than land but still no better for an LBA based aircraft if it hasn't got in the night before to then depart first thing

 

[Finger66]

So have done a bit of digging around in GDS today. All LBA - ABZ flights still in GDS after 03Jun but all zero'd out for availability including the Sunday AT7 op rotation. However the sun SOU rotation still shows op by AT7 with the weekday services a mix of S2000s and J41s. So something definitely still to happen even if it is just to update aircraft type on SOU in GDS.

 

[Starflyer]

LBA-ABZ is definitely gone from June. SOU also apparently hanging by a thread. Not a good 12 months for LBA's domestic connectivity.

 

[paully]

You can`t help but wonder how long Eastern are going to be around