Flybe

[lbaspotter]

Its seems like Flybe really do like shafting LBA. Its like they do it for fun..
How do you get rid of a service that's been successfully run for 10 years or more? Let Flybe in for the kill...

Oh and if you ask me I really do think the Airports CEO and its Australian owners AMP Capital need to be asked some serious questions regards it route development strategy. Because from the outside looking in since David Laws took over running the day to day business the of the airport, its been loss after loss.
I Never thought I would say this: "but I'm beginning to think the airport was better run under the leadership of John Parkin and Tony Hallwood and its previous owner Bridgepoint Capital"

Loganair = Glasgow route axed
Ryanair = Montpellier route axed & Ibiza, Palma, Faro & Arrecife reduced schedule compaired to summer 2017
British Airways = London Heathrow route schedule reduced by half.
Flybe = Dusseldorf route axed after only 4 months, Both Belfast City & Newquay routes have reduced schedules.
Thomas Cook = New routes announced to Enfidha, Tenerife, Mahon, Larnaca which are all axed due leased aircraft availability. Okay the keeping 3 routes with 2x weekly service to Antalya, Dalaman and a weekly flight to Palma
Aurginy = Guernsey schedule reduced from 5x to 3x weekly (Not all the airports fault)
Monarch = All routes axed due to failure of airline! (Airport can't be blame)

Good job with have Jet2 expanding along with TUI.

 

[Finger66]

Stobart don't own Flybe so i can't see them influencing Flybe and has the DUS base been closed? I know it's not an aircraft one just a crew one.

Indeed they don't - yet! If the mooted interest is to believed then this may be something that is influencing discussions. As I have posted previously, any such deal may just give BE, and even perhaps T3, a management team that know how to run an airline properly. Yes a lot of this around DUS closure at Stobarts interest is currently rumour, but appears to be a strong rumour. No smoke without fire and all that!

 

[Bigman]

You must have had a bad night last night lbaspotter. Quite negative, even for you. Just because Arsenal won which means one less nail in AW's coffin!!

 

[lbaspotter]

In reality the Flybe drop is quite bad as I make it 14x weekly rotations that have been axed.

LBA-BHD = was 29x weekly, down to 23x weekly (- 6)
LBA-NQY = Was 5x weekly, down to 3x weekly (-2)
LBA-DUS = Was 6x weekly, Axed (-6) Now confirmed as a system error by Flybe

Not even going to get into the Eastern Airways debate with the carry on they have with the ABZ and SOU routes. Never mind Stobart and it's DUB route!

 

[Jerry]

Indeed they don't - yet! If the mooted interest is to believed then this may be something that is influencing discussions. As I have posted previously, any such deal may just give BE, and even perhaps T3, a management team that know how to run an airline properly. Yes a lot of this around DUS closure at Stobarts interest is currently rumour, but appears to be a strong rumour. No smoke without fire and all that!

I'm sure Flybe's management team are perfectly capable of running an airline especially one which has nearly 500 departures a day. As for any takeover it'll be a case of wait and see.

 

[Jerry]

Dusseldorf is on sale all through Summer 2018 and into winter, 6 weekly with no flights on Saturdays.

 

[LBA8098]

H

Dusseldorf is on sale all through Summer 2018 and into winter, 6 weekly with no flights on Saturdays.

 

[LBA8098]

Panic over!!!

 

[lbaspotter]

Yeap LBA just been on contact with me directly via private mail that LBA-DUS is back on sale. They blamed it on system error on Flybe's website when they uploaded the Winter 2017/18 schedule yesterday.

 

[AirBingley]

Slight time changes which haven't quite filtered through to the individual bookings yet as my live booking is still showing the bizarre 2h05 flight time.

 

[paully]

Good to see the Dusseldorf route is viable after all. However Flybe, as a company, are bleeding money and still trying to recover from previous management. Its a certainty that every route and timing will have been examined closely, for savings. If the yield is poor on the flights they have chopped to BHD and NQY then these will have been reduced, purely, to cut loses and use the aircraft on a different route to seek a different outcome.
I doubt its anything against LBA, or its management, but everything to do with costs. Hence why a tie up with Stobart is looking likely.

 

[Jerry]

If the yield is poor on the flights they have chopped to BHD and NQY then these will have been reduced, purely, to cut loses and use the aircraft on a different route to seek a different outcome.

With BHD it may have been reduced so they can increase BHD-LCY.

 

[lbaspotter]

With BHD it may have been reduced so they can increase BHD-LCY.

Agreed with that as it looks like a stright swap for the aircraft, the timings of the new mid moring BHD-LCY is very similar to the mid moring LBA-BHD service which has been lost.
Also worth nothing that between September and October the Newquay route increases to 4x weekly.

 

[Tarn Spotter]

I Never thought I would say this: "but I'm beginning to think the airport was better run under the leadership of John Parkin and Tony Hallwood and its previous owner Bridgepoint Capital"

It used to be my business role to go in to companies we had bought and organise and operate in the manner we required for the future.
Action taken in the first 9 months dictated the success or failure for the next 5 years. I cant think of one occasion where the current staff and many outside observers thought my actions were correct, you cant judge a company situation based on a small snapshot of events, most outside the control of the airport management.
No one thinks the old management got it right and tough decisions will need to be taken for the future, not all routes are good even if revenue attractive, chasing passenger growth regardless, is suicidal, your most important resource is take off/landing slots, how you use them is the key to success as the more the airport grows the scarcer this resources becomes.
If it was a normal business world, LBA management would not deal with Flybe as their performance is poor and does not bring benefits only problems. Fighting to retain a route to Dusseldorf from LBA would be pointless for management, good business management is knowing the time to cease an operation, not allow its transfer to an inferior airline.
Its not the job of management just to keep a revenue stream going, but to ensure, capital, people etc are used to the maximum. I am sure management look at scenario of Jet2/Ryanair leaving LBA and it some cases realise this would be a plus not a minus, often the best business decisions come when you forced in to action by others.
I can still remember 50 years ago failing a management training course as I could only think of 100 uses for a paper clip, because at that time my brain programmed in a safe methodical way, I still set the same test today for new management recruits and often have to stop youngster writing after 5 minutes.
I am sure endless brain storming going on at LBA headquarters. Lets hope they make the right choices, I can only see good from the new management at the moment.

 

[White Heather]

I guess it is symptomatic of the negativity that constantly surrounds LBA and route development, and Flybe as an airline, that what appears to be a flight booking system glitch yesterday, leads to an assumption that the route to DUS is axed, with posts suggesting this as (almost) fact within hours. As I stated above, I did write to LBA management yesterday and had a reply today from Chris Sanders, Aviation Development Director, confirming it was a system fault and the route is back on sale. He also confirmed that the route has done OK this winter.

Personally, I think it is a little early to be criticising AMP Capital, the new owners of LBA, because of lost routes or flights LBAspotter. They have owned LBA for a very short time (6 months) and the routes lost were lost for reasons not of their making. It isn't their fault that the Yorkshire business users (for example) have failed to support the LHR route sufficiently to persuade BA to either maintain the current schedule, or to base an aircraft here. From 2012 to 2017, Bridgepoint failed to get them to base overnight - 5 whole years - and throughout the last 3 years, the route has seen a gradual reduction in flights, clearly heading towards either the loss of the route altogether or a reduction in schedules. Hardly the fault of our new owners who had barely got their foot in the door when BA made this decision.

As for the others you quote - Monarch was nothing to do with AMP, so why even include it? Aurigny, also nothing to do with AMP and we had already lost the winter operation under Bridgepoint. At least the aircraft on the route is larger and 3 times a week to Guernsey is no disgrace. Loganair - nothing to do with AMP either. The decision was a crazy one taken so they could go to war with Flybe/Eastern. Ryanair have in the past dropped routes, added others, and even re-instated ones previously dropped (eg Vilnius). They often add capacity if the demand is there and this could well happen this summer as it has in the past.

The reality is that AMP have been at LBA for little more than 6 months and as I think we all know, it takes time to persuade airlines to open new routes, expand others, open bases etc., particularly at a time when there is uncertainty within the industry as to the impact of Brexit. Surely we should give them some time to demonstrate what they are about rather than pointing fingers after such a short period of time?

As Bigman says, must have been a bad day as you are usually one of the posters who take a more realistic outlook!

 

[Finger66]

Very very well said White Heather. All is well in GDS again too re the DUS route.

 

[lbaspotter]

Better news as it looks like the weekday mid-morning Leeds-Belfast City BE731/732 rotation is only been dropped temporarily for 3 months period. Last flight operates on Friday, March 23rd and then restarts from Monday, July 2nd.

 

[lbaspotter]

Been reported this moring that Stobart Group proposed take over of Flybe.com is "NO DEAL"

Source: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.ci...up-abandons-flybe-approach-after-proposal/amp

 

[Aviador]

Been reported this moring that Stobart Group proposed take over of Flybe.com is "NO DEAL"

Source: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.ci...up-abandons-flybe-approach-after-proposal/amp

It would appear the company hadn't done enough to convince Stobart it had transformed itself since it's earlier troubles.

 

[Jerry]

It would appear the company hadn't done enough to convince Stobart it had transformed itself since it's earlier troubles.

Why would they need to? It was Stobart that approached them.