Flybe

[User0001]

LCY just doesn't work domestically. There's no market at the Southern end which means you fly half the legs empty and the fact that 2 operators have been and gone at LBA, 2 have had a go at MAN, 1 at LPL, 1 at NCL plus failures on GLA-LCY tells its own story. Not just from the North either, just last week Air Southwest pulled PLH-LCY but interestingly will keep their LGW service.
I admit it looks a great idea on paper, but the history tells its own story

 

[backtrack]

i've never seen a Dash-8 there, but having seen how little runway they need at Leeds, I'm sure there would be no problem at LCY.

Baboo airlines use them, the Q400's too. I think the largest operator is the E190 or the BA A318-100.

I admit it looks a great idea on paper, but the history tells its own story

It does. LCY looks a great idea, but you may be right, suppose why would airlines start a new route when its tried and tested so much...?

 

[Seasider]

I think that we should get used to idea that a London service is not really feasible in competition with the train. Interlining passengers can go via AMS where there are more connections than LGW.

 

[Aviador]

I agree to a large extent, but Manchester is still carrying a substantial number of passengers to London so why not Leeds? Although the train is more often than not the cheapest way to get there, there are still many occasions when the cheap seats aren't available even on the train. Without wanting to deviate the thread too much away from the Flybe topic, there is always Ryanair that could take on London Stansted. They could provide the lifeline that we need?

 

[Galaxy]

Isn't Stanstead a LONG way from London though? If you add the time, from arriving an hour before flight, to the flight time, disembarkation, then getting the train to London...wouldn't the Train still be quicker?

 

[WYIA]

You can get into london on the stansted express, but i imagine some people would see this as a farse. Then again i would be happy to do this, especially if the air fare is cheap. But thats just the point, flybe are serving LGW 3 times a day with cheap tickets & you can jump on a train from the terminal into london... problem is people just aint using this service enough. I can see an axe of the route in full or a rotation drop.

 

[User0001]

As someone who travels fairly regularly to London on business, I can say that the service to Gatwick compares fairly well on price. Remember that a peak open return from Leeds to kings Cross is around £240 and an off-peak is around £140. When I've checked prices for flights, its usually around the £150 mark return.

The main problems are that:
a) At Kings Cross its 2 minutes off the train onto the Underground network
b) I have the choice of lots of trains to travel on - Not so much a problem going down, but on return I can pick any train (every half an hour or so), on any day within a month.

If I could have the choice of any choosing any flight on return without paying some big excess, it would make all the difference.

LCY would be useful, but fares would probably be too high, and Stansted means a train journey of 45 minutes or so into London

 

[jason1-11]

Interesting news article on the Flybe website about the LBA - LGW route being 1 year old and mentioning the strong performance.

http://www.flybe.com/news/1006/29.htm

Did we all get it wrong or is it spin / marketing at work?

 

[Aviador]

Obviously there's more to it than just the load factor but I counted about 35 off the flight the other evening. That's not a fantastic load but it should be sufficient enough to maintain the route if that kind of load is maintained on a frequent basis. If the earlier rotation isn't performing Flybe might be able to make the route work with a twice daily operation instead of the current thrice daily operation if they can fit it into their operation.

 

[White Heather]

I reckon 69000 pax in a year equates to roughly 35 pax per flight, allowing for the fact that at some times the service dropped to twice daily and also allowing for holidays etc. I understand that the Q400 is very economical and can be profitable on fairly low payloads, but how low is that? Bearing in mind this is the first year of operation, they would probably be hoping and expecting a steady increase and it sounds as though they will be reluctant to cull this route without giving it time. Too many airlines in the past have killed off routes before they have really given them time to become fully established and in so doing, have wasted much of their own investment in that route. I hope Flybe don't do likewise.

 

[backtrack]

Todays early LGW service went tech. G-FLBA, a dash 8 Q400 based unit went tech after pax were boarded and pretty much ready to go. A spare Dash 8 was flown in from LGW, (G-JEDI) to operate our LGW service.

 

[User0001]

The main risks to LBA-LGW are price increases that the new owners of LGW put through and any move to change APD from a 'per passenger' to a 'per plane' tax. If one of these happens, the route will be at risk. If both happen, it will go.

 

[masere]

Todays early LGW service went tech. G-FLBA, a dash 8 Q400 based unit went tech after pax were boarded and pretty much ready to go. A spare Dash 8 was flown in from LGW, (G-JEDI) to operate our LGW service.

The replacement was G-JEDI!!?? The Force was most definately not with G-FLBA then!

 

[012tom012]

Replacement was actually G-JEDL

 

[White Heather]

Tax per plane was identified by the Government as the way forward in the recent budget, which could be bad news for a few routes from quite a lot of airports I would imagine.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The theory is that low cost airlines with new fleets and high load factors would be the beneficiaries of the proposed change in levying the aviation environmental tax.

It would still be passed on to the punter in some form by the airlines though with Ryanair probably finding the most imaginative (read - artful) way of doing so in order to keep their headline fares apparently low.

 

[michael]

Why is it Flybe fares (and others) vary so much? I have booked a flight tonight to Exeter in early August one way. Excluding baggage and debit card charges to fly from LBA would have cost me approx £80. The same evenings flight from Manchester has cost me £30. Hence I've booked from Manchester. Are Flybe pushing certain routes or are LBA pricing themselves out of certain routes?

 

[yorkshire]

Its ok going from manchester but you have to think on it ill cost you extra £20-30 for petrol and then theres the parking so overall it works out simlar to what you would pay going from leeds..but i understand were your coming from.

 

[masere]

I sometimes flew between Leeds and Heathrow on the BMI service and when it stopped I looked at flying from Manchester and was stunned to see it was a lot cheaper. Every day there were many flights for £32 yet from Leeds sometimes the cheapest was well over £50. Even Heathrow-Edinburgh was cheaper than Heathrow-Leeds!! I think it's simply because there's two airlines that do those routes (BMI & BA) yet as only BMI did the Leeds route they had no competition so were charging what they liked, knowing the only other alternative was a long train/road journey. Disgraceful isn't it?

 

[michael]

As we live not far from Grassington it's always easier to get to LBA but its not that much further to go to MAN - just a bit more in fuel but car parking is cheaper at MAN so its favourable. Having said that I try to go from LBA where possible but being a true Dalesman I done like being robbed!!