Flybe

[Scottie Dog]

I'll have finished doing my preliminary check later today and will post my findings.

 

[Jerry]

I cannot work out what on earth Flybe are up to

They may have more to launch? With CWL's schedule they still have put GLA and LCY on sale and Cardiff's twitter said more will be launched at the end of the month maybe similar is happening at MAN? It does seem to be a peacemeal approach though.

 

[Aceshigh]

I'm non plussed Scottie.

Big advertising on twitter , sidebars in Google etc , what on earth is the point of having a big advertising push if the punters can't see the products ?

 

[Scottie Dog]

Initial Review of Flybe Summer 2017 services.

Peak week = 14th-20th August

Number of flights in peak week 2016 - 684
Number of flights in peak week 2017 - 735
Number of unbalanced flights 2017 - 24

Summary of unbalanced flights:

Glasgow - Monday and Friday only showing 3 return flights rather then 4

Isle of Man - Sunday shows 4 departure but only 3 arrivals

Jersey - Thursday and Saturday show 1 departure but 2 arrivals

Luxembourg - No inbound flights showing on any day

Norwich - Shows 1 return flight on Monday; 2 on Tuesday Wednesday and Friday: and 3 on Thursday. Currently 3 per weekday.

Potentially 7 new routes may be announced. If these operated twice daily Monday to Friday that would add a further 140 flights per week.

 

[Comet]

Scottie Dog

Glasgow is I believe correct

My spread sheet shows how it seems to work. Hope the formatting stays put.

Glasgow/SUMBURGH D 0840 1 2 3 4 5 BE6642 1 GLA
GLASGOW D 1205 1 2 3 4 7 BE6644 0
GLASGOW/STORNOWAY D 1640 2 3 4 5 BE6646 1 GLA
GLASGOW D 2015 1 2 3 4 5 7 BE6648 0


GLASGOW A 0755 1 2 3 4 5 BE6641 0
GLASGOW A 1110 1 2 3 4 7 BE6643 0
SUMBURGH/GLASGOW A 1550 2 3 4 5 BE6645 1 GLA
STORNOWAY/GLASGOW A 1935 1 2 3 4 5 7 BE6647 1 GLA

 

[Comet]

Unfortunately the formatting didn't stay put but hopefully understandable.

 

[User001]

So so GLAD is 4 daily then?

Arrivals at 0755/1110/1550/1935
Departs at 0840/1205/1640/2015

 

[Comet]

No 3 Monday and Friday

 

[User001]

Well it will no doubt change, can't see it being 4 daily Tue/Wed/thou and not on 2 of the busiest days (Mon/Fri).

 

[Comet]

It does seem very odd but that is what is showing at present

 

[Scottie Dog]

I agree that this is how things are showing at the present time, and hopefully the full schedules will become clearer over the next few weeks. I forgot to say that Rotterdam is another destination missing from the schedules.

it's interesting to think back over the years (or even decades) to when summer schedules and inclusive tour holidays were not bookable until New Year. New Year's Day was the busiest day in the retail market and we would be open for a longer day than normal.

We appear to have 6 aircraft overnighting and the first wave of arrivals starts at 0740 and has 9 flights before 0800. The current day with the largest number of flights is Thursday with 120 movements.

 

[Aceshigh]

It is somewhat odd. Is there a genuine increase of 20% across the board.

Are these simply former Loganir routes ?

__________________________

AND in a further lesson in how NOT to market a codeshare part 5

Not sure if this is damage limitation but the "latest Flybe PR" piece re SIA now suggests

"additional cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Isle of Man, Exeter are also available through the interline agreement between the two carriers via Manchester "

Well of course they are ........except "some" were Loganair !

So why on earth did the first PR only mention 5 initially ?

"starting this winter, regional customers using Flybe’s multi-frequency services from five UK airports including Aberdeen, Manchester and Southampton, and two mainland European airports, can book seamless onward flights to over 100 Singapore Airlines’ long haul destinations throughout south-east Asia, Australasia and now to the United States via Manchester"

I have to say the way this has been handled appears from the outside to be a shambles and has created utter confusion as to exactly what is available and from where.

We have the airline only mentioning a limited number of the options available in the first PR release then slowly acknowledging it's ALSO all routes ex Manchester with the Finance Officer Vincent Hodder wading in.

BUT some routes were / are Loganair . .......

Did they realise marketing had cocked up hence the intervention ?

We then have individual airports who were NOT part of the original 5 routes nor the previous Loganair agreement eg Exeter putting there own spin on things.

All very odd !

 

[EGCC_MAN]

Just an aside for anybody on here who collects AVIOS. Following a recently-introduced change, it is now possible to exchange your points for money off bookings with FlyBe. This is a godsend for those of us who are not conveniently located for using BA's London network. The rate of exchange looks pretty reasonable. During one of FlyBe's recent seat-sales, I secured a MAN-TLS return booking for 9000 Avios plus £3. Not bad at all. I presume the procedure will work on other FlyBe routes as well.

I haven't yet tried this on a Loganair-operated sector but may have the opportunity to do so soon. I'll advise if any problems arise. In the meantime, I reckon that FlyBe have overnight become the best way to use accrued Avios for those of us resident in the North West. I'll be making more bookings over coming weeks.

 

[Scottie Dog]

Initial Review of Flybe Summer 2017 services. Update 1

Peak week = 14th-20th August

Number of flights in peak week 2016 - 684
Number of flights in peak week 2017 - 742 = 8.479% increase
Number of unbalanced flights 2017 - 20
Potential peak week 2017 = 762 flights = 11.403% increase

Summary of unbalanced flights:

Edinburgh - Saturday 3 departures and 4 arrivals. Sunday 4 departures and 3 arrivals (Flybe route at present) ** 2 unbalanced flights **
Glasgow - Monday and Friday only showing 3 return flights rather then 4 - previous comments have been noted (Loganair route) ** 4 unbalanced flights **
Inverness - Midday arrival shows as "greyed out" on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Friday (Loganir route) ** 4 unbalanced flights **
Norwich - Shows 1 return flight on Monday; 2 on Tuesday Wednesday and Friday: and 3 on Thursday. Currently 3 per weekday. (Loganair route) Currently 3 return flights per day Monday-Friday plus 1 return on Sunday ** 10 unbalanced flights

Rotterdam - Currently 4 return flights per week (Friday-Monday)

I'll do a further review in approximately a week.

 

[Aceshigh]

Exellent work Scottie !

The flybe network is critical re some of our codeshares !

 

[Scottie Dog]

Initial Review of Flybe Summer 2017 services. Update 2

Peak week = 14th-20th August

Number of flights in peak week 2016 - 684
Number of flights in peak week 2017 - 745
Number of unbalanced flights 2017 - 20
Potential peak week 2017 = 762 flights = 11.403% increase

Summary of unbalanced flights:

Edinburgh - Saturday 3 departures and 4 arrivals. Sunday 4 departures and 3 arrivals (Flybe route at present) ** 2 unbalanced flights **
Glasgow - Monday and Friday only showing 3 return flights rather then 4. Also no flights show for a Saturday, although 2 return flights on a Sunday - previous comments have been noted (Loganair route) ** 4 unbalanced flights **
Inverness - Midday arrival shows as "greyed out" on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Friday (Loganair route). This means there are 4 days with 3 departures but 4 arrivals ** 4 unbalanced flights **
Norwich - Shows 1 return flight on Monday; 2 on Tuesday Wednesday and Friday: and 3 on Thursday. Currently 3 per weekday. (Loganair route) Currently 3 return flights per day Monday-Friday plus 1 return on Sunday ** 10 unbalanced flights

Interestingly 3 of these routes involve Loganair.

Again I will look at revisiting the Flybe programme in another weeks time.

 

[Land23R]

Thanks again Scottie. Is there any indication of changes on the international routes? I think when I looked AMS was 4 x daily (Mon-Fri at least) although I had a feeling it was 5 x daily this summer, but could be mistaken of course. Paris was showing the same mix with AF as this year, and is Milan 2 x daily? Can't recall Hanover but Toulouse was showing daily and I think Lyon too.

 

[Scottie Dog]

I've just powered the laptop down for the night and so don't have access to my databases (battery needs charging). I'll have a look in the morning and give you answers to those specific questions.

Updating files as I write, but have noticed the Flybe website gives incorrect carriers on the Paris route.

 

[Scottie Dog]

As requested by Land23R.........

Flybe proposed operations - week commencing 14th August 2017

Note that the Air France website shows Flybe operating a number of the Paris flights, were as the Flybe website appears to show Air France as the only carrier!

On the basis of this new information we now have:

Summer 2016 - 684 flights for the peak week.
Summer 2017 - 794 flights for the peak weak = 16.08% increase
Possible flights to be announced (to give equal arrivals/departures) - 20


Aberdeen - Monday-Friday 6 return flights. Saturday 3 return flight. Sunday 4 return flights.
Amsterdam - Monday-Friday 4 return flights. Saturday and Sunday 3 return flights.
Belfast - Monday-Friday 7 return flights. Saturday 5 return flights. Sunday 1 return flight.
Bergerac - Saturday 1 return flight.
Dusseldorf - Monday-Friday 3 return flights. Sunday 2 return flights. No service on Saturday.
Edinburgh - Monday-Friday 4 return flights. Saturday 3 departures/4 arrivals. Sunday 4 arrivals/3 departures.
Exeter - Monday-Friday 4 return flights. Saturday and Sunday 3 return flights.
Glasgow - Monday and Friday 3 return flights. Tuesday-Thursday 4 return flights. Saturday no service. Sunday 2 return flights.
Hanover - 1 return flight per day.
Inverness - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 3 arrivals and 4 departures (4th arrival is 'greyed' out). Wednesday 4 return flights. Saturday and Sunday 3 return flights.
Isle of Man - Monday-Friday 5 return flights. Saturday 3 return flights. Sunday 4 return flights.
Jersey - Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday 1 return flight. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 2 return flights.
Knock - 1 return flight per day except Saturday which has no service.
La Rochelle - Saturday 1 return flights.
Luxembourg - 1 return flight per day.
Lyon - 1 return flight per day.
Milan Malpensa - 2 return flights per day.
Nantes - 1 return flight on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Newquay -1 return flight per day.
Norwich - Monday and Sunday 1 return flight. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 2 return flights. Thursday 3 return flights. Saturday no service.
Paris - Monday-Friday 4 return flights and Saturday and Sunday have 3 return flights.
Southampton - Monday-Friday 6 return flights. Saturday 4 return flights. Sunday 3 return flights.
Toulouse - 1 return flight per day.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

Thankyou for that update, SD. Some interesting data there.

The biggest oddity which leapt off the page was that bizarre Belfast City schedule. One return flight on a Sunday??? We've got five now. This can't be correct unless someone at FlyBe has gone mad. Sunday afternoon / evening is the peak travel period which sees family weekenders repositioning ready for work on Monday morning. Friday evenings and Sunday evenings are the highest-yielding flights of the week. And that one return flight which is showing is a lunchtime operation. Meanwhile, Saturday ... a day when many travellers are in situ where they wish to be (not on the move) there are five return flights. My guess is that the Sunday schedule is not yet finalised and is yet to be fully loaded.

Newquay at once daily also looks like a downgrade. A popular route too, particularly in high summer. I'm not sure we're seeing the final version on this route either.

Rotterdam ... twice daily was too ambitious. But the loads weren't that bad. Once daily should be given a chance.

I suspect that we're not yet looking at the final version of FlyBe's S17 programme.