Flybe

[nwoody2001]

delayed until after the new governments budget in October I believe.....?

 

[Ray Finkle]

I posted this on the EK thread but it's probably more suited here.

The Emirates code share with Flybe starts on Wednesday 15th July. Below is the list for BHX.

It's odd how you can connect from EK onto Flybes GLA-BHX flight but not the other way around :dunno:

Birmingham – Aberdeen
Birmingham – Belfast City
Birmingham – Edinburgh
Birmingham – Inverness
Birmingham – Isle of Man
Birmingham – Jersey
Birmingham – Newquay

Full list: http://airlineroute.net/2015/07/13/ekbecodeshare-jul15/

 

[thunderchild]

AMS is being trimmed slightly from 6 to 5 daily for the winter - I did think it was a bit much and I'm still not sure about 5 to be honest. Interestingly KLM going down to 4 daily but using larger aircraft for the winter.

 

[nwoody2001]

what capacity are we talking about compared to last winter?

 

[thunderchild]

IIRC FlyBe was x3 daily and KLM was x4 daily so with the extra frequencies and upgauge in aircraft available capacity will be more this winter.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I think I agree that 6x daily was probably pushing it a little.

Dusseldorf goes up to 5x daily (I think it was 4 last winter?) and Milan is back to double daily during the week. There are also more increases to ABZ, EDI and GLA.

 

[nwoody2001]

oh well, at least flybe grows on the routes it has kept, which I suppose is testament to the fact that the routes they did keep were obviously successful.... at least its looking more positive for next year that we shouldn't get a bloodbath like we did this year...

I still think there is great potential and room to grow for flybe out of BHX but after the stunts they pulled earlier this year, id be scared to see how long theyd give a route until they performed...

that said, they appear to be sticking around in Bournemouth, Cardiff and London city....

 

[TheLocalYokel]

oh well, at least flybe grows on the routes it has kept, which I suppose is testament to the fact that the routes they did keep were obviously successful.... at least its looking more positive for next year that we shouldn't get a bloodbath like we did this year...

I still think there is great potential and room to grow for flybe out of BHX but after the stunts they pulled earlier this year, id be scared to see how long theyd give a route until they performed...

that said, they appear to be sticking around in Bournemouth, Cardiff and London city....

LCY is obviously a unique case in that the airport serves the London business district. I don't know what if anything MAG has done to attract Flybe to BOH. One might assume something because SOU is just down the road and is an important Flybe base.

Flybe pulled out of CWL 18 months ago saying the routes there were uneconomic. They returned last month with the same routes plus some more with talk of a ten-year agreement with the CWL owners.

The Welsh Assembly Government as airport owners is putting aside £13 million in its annual budget over the next three years to attract carriers so it can be confidently assumed that some of this money has helped to persuade Flybe back to Wales. Without it it's highly unlikely that they would have returned.

BHX is a much bigger animal than CWL with the capacity to fend for itself and Flybe won't want to miss out on such a market.

 

[Bhx_fifteen]

I for one find it very strange that flybe decided to deploy 2 118-seat embraer 195s at CWL over Q400 (78 seats) or E-175 (88 seats). The Q400 can fly most routes with the E-175 covering the remaining routes.

They said they were seeking solutions for their E-195s, but one would think they'd upgrade some E-175s at established bases such as BHX and MAN and then move the smaller aircraft to CWL. Especially as CWL is a small airport, flybe is a newly returning airline and were unsuccessful in the past. Seems very strange to go and plonk their largest aircraft there...

Oh well, I won't try and understand flybe's tactics........

 

[Ray Finkle]

As of Feb 2016 Stuttgart goes up to 3x daily during the week :good:

 

[Brum X]

BHX-TXL up to 3 Saturday flights in the run up to christmas.

Interesting, great to see Berlin given some increases.

Is it that Germans have realised that they can come to a German Market in Birmingham or is Berlin a popular christmas market destination ????? Maybe both are popular for Germans and English

 

[nwoody2001]

so.....

From Birmingham, Flybe will operate 17 routes during winter. Highlights include extra flights to Amsterdam, which will now operate up to five times a day, with extra daily flights to Aberdeen, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Milan and Stuttgart during peak winter periods and the return of the weekly Saturday ski service to Chambery from December 19.

therefore, with someone who understand timetables more than me... does anyone know how the flybe routes this winter compare to last winter with regard to frequencies?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Good stuff.

Hanover finally rises up to 2x daily except Saturday when there is just one flight.

To sum up:

Aberdeen rises to 4x daily.
Amsterdam rises to 5x daily.
Dusseldorf rises to 5x daily.
Edinburgh rises to 8x daily.
Glasgow rises to 8x daily.
Stuttgart rises to 3x daily.
Hanover rises to 2x daily.
Milan 2x daily with three flights on some days.
Extra flights to Berlin.
Saturday flight to Chambery.
Saturday flight to Geneva.

:good:

 

[nwoody2001]

so out of the 17 routes they operate, that's an increase in 7 of them... the question is, what has happened with the other 10? any reductions or is this net growth???

 

[Ray Finkle]

Bordeaux isn't operating this winter, I think it was 4x weekly last winter. It's still in the menu though so may be summer only now.

I think there were around 27 weekly flights cut from last winter with the likes of Oslo, Porto, Florence, Toulouse etc... all being dropped but there were other increases over the summer (Jersey etc) so these will go along way to plugging that gap.

I'm not sure whether the overall seat count though as several routes have seen aircraft upgrades?

 

[jfy1999]

We can make a very rough estimate by looking at which aircraft are used most on a route. I know the Dash 8-Q400 has 78 seats, the E175 has 88 seats and the E195 has 118 seats.

Aberdeen: Dash 8
Amsterdam: E175
Belfast City: Dash 8 (E175s often used)
Berlin Tegel: E175 (E195s sometimes used)
Bordeaux: E175
Düsseldorf: E175 (Dash 8s often used)
Edinburgh: Dash 8 (E175s and E195s often used)
Glasgow: Dash 8 (E175s often used)
Guernsey: Dash 8
Hannover: E175 (Dash 8s often used)
Inverness: Dash 8
Isle of Man: Dash 8
Jersey: Dash 8
Lyon: E175
Milan Malpensa: E175
Paris CDG: E195
Stuttgart: E175

 

[nwoody2001]

from another forum (Thanks to Peter Collins PPrune)

-x-x-x-

There are a few changes from what I last reported but still 11 based - 8 jets (2 x 195 & 6 x 175) and 3 Q400's with the IOM aircraft coming through.

Actually the number of rotations is only a couple down each day at around a high of 52 compared to last winter and a couple surprises - Berlin double daily on a Saturday, what is that all about? Dusseldorf two Saturday services compared to none some winters. Three Amsterdam on a Saturday and five on a Sunday and the biggest increase from summer is Hanover, back to double daily on six days.

Weekday

ABZ - 4 M-F no Change (1 Sat & 2 Sun)
AMS - 5 M-F up one (3 Sat & 5 Sun)
BHD - 7 M-F no change (3 Sat & 5 Sun)
TXL - 8 a week up one flight (extra Saturday)
CMF - Saturday only 195
DUS - 5 up 1 (2 x 175, 3 x Q400) Weekend - 2 Sat and 3 Sunday
EDI - 8 up 1 (The extra is a 195 but the last in a Q400) 3 Sat & 5 Sun
GLA - 8 up 1 (3 x 175 plus extra based Q400) 3 Sat & 4 Sun
HAJ - 2 similar to last winter which did reduce to 10 a week then 7 now 13.
INV - 7 - up 1
IOM - 8 same
JER/GCI - 12 a week same
LYS - Daily - same
MXP - 2 daily Su-Fri one Saturday up from 7/10 a week
CDG - 3 daily in the week no change
STR - 2 daily M-F no Saturday and daily Sunday

So not too bad but would have liked to see them try Newquay and re-instate Toulouse. Still some 175 gaps late morning early afternoon.

-x-x-x-

so the good news is that even though we are 9 routes down this winter than we were last winter, in terms of rotations, we are only a couple a day down on what we were last year due to increased frequencies. Assuming the routes that were dropped were the routes with the lowest pax take up, and the once retained have increase pax number's, lets hope its a case of 'less but fuller flights' means that pax numbers wont be down that much for flybe? too optimistic?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Excellent summary thanks for posting it. The only things I'd add are Stuttgart rises to 3x daily Mon - Fri from the end of Feb and they are doing a Saturday ski flight to Geneva.

I don't think it looks too bad and when you consider the massacre that we saw towards the end of last year it could have been much, much worse. Whether overall pax numbers for Flybe will match those of last winter remains to be seen but I'd like to think yields will be up, which would be good all round.

With extra winter services from Emirates, American, Vueling, Norwegian, Wizz, Icelandair, VLM, and increases from Monarch, Ryanair, Easyjet, Aer Lingus and Thomson we should hopefully see some decent increases this winter.

 

[jfy1999]

Everyone seems to have missed this, but a little bit of bad news as well.

Flybe did apply to start Birmingham-Londonderry, and although it was on the initial list of routes that were applied for it wasn't listed among the routes that made it past the first hurdle laid down by the people of the Regional Air Connectivity Fund. So it looks like we won't be seeing any flights to Londonderry in the near future.

It's a real shame as Derry was one of our stronger domestic routes and I was really annoyed when Ryanair pulled the plug. It would be interesting to find out why Flybe couldn't get the route past the first stage. Were they unable to demonstrate that the route would be sustainable in the long term (as that was one of the criteria for a successful submission)?

 

[nwoody2001]

id imagine that Londonderry would be a great route for VLM to have a go at, if flybe aren't interested any longer...