Flybe

[mullion]

It won`t happen as it didn`t at Manchester either, infact there were no charter flights either as the teams arrive well in advance and are based all over the country for training and most of the tickets are sold locally

 

[Llandudno]

Mullion MAN definately did have charters for the commonwealth games.

Qantas was one at least as they sent the red 'wunalula dreaming' B744 to collect the Australian team. Like I say that was just one.

 

[Jerry]

Hi there all, with the commenwealth games due in the next two years, unless bhx gets their fingers out now and starts to arrange direct flights from every commonwealth country that is due to compete in Birmingham, then it will be total humiliation on those faces responsible.. Andyc

It's not down to BHX to organise charter flights. That's down to the teams participating and most would use scheduled flights I'd imagine.

 

[Ianbutty]

It's not down to BHX to organise charter flights. That's down to the teams participating and most would use scheduled flights I'd imagine.

Yes they would use existing routes so expect uptake via Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Others will come to Heathrow.. 2012 was a minor blip on the London airports. And as with the Olympics whilst some teams stay on mass many athletes have contractual commitments elsewhere and treat events like this as part of their tour schedule...hence villages are smaller than the number of participants. Expect some exotic visitors, however. Importantly the media attention.

Something like a G20 summit will be slot better for the airport.

 

[rutamkrd]

Hi there all, with the commenwealth games due in the next two years, unless bhx gets their fingers out now and starts to arrange direct flights from every commonwealth country that is due to compete in Birmingham, then it will be total humiliation on those faces responsible.. Andyc

Don’t get your hopes up - These events are generally a damp squib in reality . As other have said athletes especially the top label ones will arrive under their own steam. Compete and move on.

Most of the commonwealth teams are quite small and some have competitors on one event !

The adjudicators will come through scheduled channels as will the majority of competitors and i am very much afraid to say the beneficiary for this event will be 112 mile south down the M42 period stop.

What Birmingham will almost certainly see are some exotic business jets both corporate and governmental .

I might add that some of the teams will be training away from Birmingham and indeed some the events are a long way from the city.
Training camps will be in Manchester , Sheffield , Edinburgh, Bristol and indeed London among others.

Ticket prices will be high, there may be a ballot for some heavily subscribed events and whilst the city will have a buzz about it for ten days it really won’t be an engine for suddenly growing the long haul offerings from Elmdon sorry to say.

 

[58terminus]

the city will have a buzz about it for ten days

Makes it worth paying the price of 2 years of traffic chaos whilst they demolish the Perry Barr flyover so people can bycycle to a stadium
situated in a small park hemmed in by the m6 and residental areas. Really looking forward to seeing how this works out.

 

[Matt995]

back to Flybe, and I follow a female Flybe captain on social media, she is Exeter based and flys the dash, tonight she has flown into Southampton, and Flybe arranged a taxi to take her home back to Exeter. Thats around 110 miles, so what will the taxi cost be for Flybe? How many crews in the uk are they taxing from one airport to another? And you wonder where there money is being spent!! its madness, total miss-management!

 

[Severn]

back to Flybe, and I follow a female Flybe captain on social media, she is Exeter based and flys the dash, tonight she has flown into Southampton, and Flybe arranged a taxi to take her home back to Exeter. Thats around 110 miles, so what will the taxi cost be for Flybe? How many crews in the uk are they taxing from one airport to another? And you wonder where there money is being spent!! its madness, total miss-management!

You'll find nearly all airlines transport their crew around via taxi, not just Flybe. I know of crews from easyJet, Eastern, Loganair and Aer Lingus to name but a few all being put in a taxi before or after a flight to position them.

It might seem like mismanagement, however there are numerous reasons why it may be required. Sometimes crews attend training at another base so will be taken there by taxi (EZY crew from BRS for example are required to go to LGW or MAN for simulator training and are put in a taxi to get there). I know of Dublin based Aer Lingus crew who start their day in Dublin and regularly end their day in Belfast City before being put into a taxi back to Dublin (around 100 miles South!). They then collect their cars and head home, madness!

This Flybe captain you mentioned might have been required to get that particular aircraft to Southampton this evening to replace a Southampton aircraft. A crew from Southampton may have taken another aircraft to Exeter at the same (maybe it's scheduled to go into maintenance tomorrow). Sometimes there is nowhere around the network for these crews to swap so unfortunately they end up out of base and require a taxi home.

 

[Coathanger16]

The alternative is putting 4 crew (2 pilots plus at least 2 cabin crew) in a hotel - in that light putting them in a taxi back to their base will be cheaper.

As @Severn points out crew ending their day away from base isn't necessarily bad/mismanagement - its sometimes unavoidable, especially for the smaller airlines with less crew available.

 

[jfy1999]

It seems that APD is not the only debt mountain Flybe have to overcome

Flybe aircraft owners track debts amid jet impound fears

Aircraft leasing companies could lose control of jets as Flybe racks up debts

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[SRDey]

I’m wondering if anyone has any idea when for when Flybe is to become Virgin Connect? I know if rumours where true it was meant to be last month but didn’t due to the issues that occurred . I’m wondering if Virgin Connect is still going ahead hopefully I can’t wait to see a bit of Red Hot Virgin Red to spice up Birmingham Airport soon. Also I hope this means I can start collecting Virgin Flying Club points flying from Birmingham.

 

[Coathanger16]

Think the Virgin Connect rebrand will be on the back burner until the current issues with Flybe have been resolved. Given the company is supposedly struggling for money, don't think a costly rebrand would go down too well with government, shareholders or the public!

 

[SRDey]

Think the Virgin Connect rebrand will be on the back burner until the current issues with Flybe have been resolved. Given the company is supposedly struggling for money, don't think a costly rebrand would go down too well with government, shareholders or the public!

I hope things improve for FlyBe soon, still worrying how last month we could have lost the biggest airline at BHX ever. Your right rightfully so it’s a better idea to wait for any problems to be ironed out before staring something new and it all goes wrong and falls flat on its face. Even though Virgin Connect is on the back burner for now it’s an ambitious project that I hope sees the light of day soon and I think RN it’s something Birmingham Airport really needs.

 

[Ryan Kirkpatrick]

I hope things improve for FlyBe soon, still worrying how last month we could have lost the biggest airline at BHX ever. Your right rightfully so it’s a better idea to wait for any problems to be ironed out before staring something new and it all goes wrong and falls flat on its face. Even though Virgin Connect is on the back burner for now it’s an ambitious project that I hope sees the light of day soon and I think RN it’s something Birmingham Airport really needs.

I hope things do improve as well. I plan to fly with them back from Newquary to BHX in July. Going on BA 1st flight from LHR to Newqaury & flying with Flybe back to Birmingham on the same day.

 

[SRDey]

I hope things do improve as well. I plan to fly with them back from Newquary to BHX in July. Going on BA 1st flight from LHR to Newqaury & flying with Flybe back to Birmingham on the same day.

Indeed I’m planning to fly FlyBe to Glasgow soon, god forbid anything happen but I have hope all will be well

 

[Ianbutty]

Indeed I’m planning to fly FlyBe to Glasgow soon, god forbid anything happen but I have hope all will be well

I think you will find Ryan that people will really behind Flybe. After the loss of the much loved Monarch and Thomas Cook, Flybe will be supported. Whether their business model is right remains to be seen but the government support would not happen unless there was something really important to salvage

Post Brexit the British are...

 

[LichfieldBlue]

Not looking good at all, Sky News article

 

[JF57]

Not looking good at all, Sky News article

Unfortunately not. I fear there will be a lot of other airlines and businesses outside aviation under severe stress given the current events. Not all will survive.

 

[Brum X]

Yet they want a whole load of Flybe flights with Virgin Atlantic codeshares, lol and do all of these flights even operate any more from BHX ? I thought some of the french routes were shelved.

Virgin Atlantic operated by flyBe
Birmingham – Avignon
Birmingham – Bergerac
Birmingham – Brest
Birmingham – Bordeaux
Birmingham – Guernsey
Birmingham – Jersey
Birmingham – La Rochelle
Birmingham – Nantes
Birmingham – Newquay

 

[Matt995]

seams strange that Virgin have announced these code share flights on the day Flybe admit they are in serious trouble. Maybe Virgin would like to pump in 100m into Flybe so they continue to operate?

As i said when Virgin took on Flybe last year, all they are interested in are the LHR slots, and with the 3rd runway now possible cancelled, Virgin have no use for the majority of the Flybe network, and really would be more than happy if Flybe failed

I'm sorry to say, I cant see how Flybe can survive, thats 30% of BHX movements gone, that should keep the BHX shareholders happy!!