Flyforbeans part III

[TheLocalYokel]

It's surprising that the Welsh press don't do some digging to try to find out the state of play.

With Wales Online doing aother big piece recently about how CWL needs to grow one would have thought that they would have done a bit of research on FFB.

Or perhaps the hacks are as uninspiring as those this side the Severn who rely on spoon-fed press releases from organisations for much of their output.

 

[Aviador]

I spoke too soon. welshguy's post has now gone from the Dried Plum website.

It really is odd how the DP still bans any mention of FFB.

Very weird! Surely you can't go much more public than asking for cabin crew on a website.

 

[welshguy39]

they must be thinking starting up soon because there not many people would apply for the jobs now and then wait god knows how long to start the job all we can do is wait and see

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I mentioned elsewhere the new website designed to support and encourage Welsh air transport.

One of the members is Tim Lee, MD of FFB, and he has now commented in that site regarding FFB's current position.

Anyone who wants to read the full debate or even TL's full comments will have to read them at source because, aware that FFB previously engaged a much bigger message board website than this one in firm dialogue about the way FFB is portrayed and not wishing that to happen here, I merely report a brief extract which is normally regarded as acceptable and not likely to breach any copyright.

Tim Lee said, inter alia, "We're still around, just waiting for the economy to improve prior to a launch, as per our website. There is NO WAY anyone even remotely sane would think about launching right now!

Why top secret? We're not, and we're happy to answer questions - but we won't answer about anything commercially sensitive - so forget route plans, fares, product, service levels etc. ..........................."

Can't add anything to that.

 

[Em0866]

Cheers Local. I do think it's rather odd though to be starting to advertise for cabin crew when they have no intention of starting up the airline until the economy improves. Also he seems pretty happy to answer questions on that particular website but why haven't they updated their blog? To me it seems strange

 

[TheLocalYokel]

That's a fair point Em, and one that occurred to me.

A brief update along the lines of his comments in the new Welsh aviation website would go some way to answering the doubters that FFB is a dead duck in the water.

I suspect that so long as the backers remain on board this airline will see the light of day at some point and it will be intriguing to see what routes they come up with, having previously hinted at destinations away from the main stream.

Assuming that FFB does actually take to the skies the main battle will only just have begun. People will have to support it to prevent it going the way of the likes of Airways International Cymru and Air Wales.

 

[Em0866]

Well I have now signed up to the other website and have placed my comments/views on it, so will wait and see. I've included an update on the blog and a couple of other isses too. No one more than me wants them to start and to avoid it being a dead duck. Will see what kind of response I get. I do think that my points are valid though and I am not having a go or being awkward either. Communication is very important and in my point I said some communication, even if it doesn't say much is better than nothing

 

[Aviador]

Out of interest is the proposed FFB airline owned by another company or group as such?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

So far as I am aware this is a group of, I believe, mainly business people who have invested and secured backers to start this airline.

When it was announced back in 2007 BBC Wales, and other local news media outlets, gave the venture quite a lot of publicity. One or two other names were mentioned, mainly backers from memory, but the only senior member whose name is regularly mentioned is Tim Lee, the MD.

Various other names are published in the FFB Blog such as the chief pilot but I assume they are employees and not backers or directors.

I can't find a lot more by 'Googling'.

Perhaps some of the regular CWL aficionados on this message board might be able to throw some more light on the set-up.

 

[welshguy39]

hey guys found these today

http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/low/C4967.stm


http://www.jettraining.net/testimonials.htm

 

[Aviador]

Executive Director, Head Of Operations Flyforbeans Aviation Ltd
Head of Operations Flyforbeans Aviation Ltd

It's looking like late winter/early spring launch then.

Absolute speculation and obviously I have no knowledge of what FFB intend to do but I would say a twice daily Amsterdam and a three times weekly Barcelona would be a good start with a late spring launch of other routes. I would imagine that there is bound to be some competition with Bmibaby but there should be enough business in the area to sustain the both of them.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The conference the above link refers to took place last September.

I'm not sure about AMS. KLM has a strong presence from CWL and baby has tried its own service to AMS in competition but subsequently dropped it.

easyJet at Bristol only goes once daily against KLM and dropped a second daily rotation last year.

Em posed a question for Tim Lee about FFB which the MD has now answered. I won't steal Em's thunder because he may want to give TL's answer himself but it doesn't suggest they are imminently about to hire cabin and flight crew staff.

 

[Em0866]

Thanks Local, although I wouldn't have minded you saying what TL said

I raised the issue of recruitment for cabin crew in which he stated, "We do leave the adverts for crew there, and maintain a pool for people who may wish to join us in the future. We certainly don't expect people to leave their current jobs to join us just yet, and people who have applied to us have been told this very clearly."

I also asked about an update on FFBs website blog, stating that communication was very important and even though that maybe there was nothing to currently report, it was important to update as there hadn't been one since October of last year, and also an update would keep interest. His response was "I will get around to posting some comment on the blog soon."

So keep checking their blog from time to time

 

[welshguy39]

well lets hope they do get to start soon and do alot more weekend flights aswell saturdays are dead sunday well not too bad and lets hope there going to be cheap too compete with ryanair easyjet and baby and good routes

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Tim Lee has said today that only one of FFB's proposed routes is currently flown from CWL.

He won't be drawn on the routes but no doubt others will speculate.

Malta and Keflavik were two mentioned in the past with FFB appearing on arrival boards at those airports at one point last year.

Malta could still feature because I took TL to mean scheduled routes. The KM service that operates at present is classed as a charter.

 

[welshguy39]

anyone having problems bringing up FFB website

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Tim Lee, in answer to this question on the WAN forum, said the site is temporarily down through technical reasons. Their Belgian techies are working on it.

TL, although steadfastly refusing to say which routes FFB would operate, has given a broad hint on WAN today that France will feature significantly.

In a discussion about which routes would and would not work for low-cos he said, "France has enormous appeal though", with a grin smiley appended.

 

[welshguy39]

thanks hope we find out soon what routes there doing

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Tim Lee said today on WAN that they have no interest in domestic routes.

When asked whether now was not a good time to get a good deal on Boeing 737-300 aircraft he hinted that this series would not be the one they would use (because, he said, of the poor fuel consumption rate) but that it would be a 737-airline (700 series perhaps? - my italics), although certainly not a 800 series which, he said, would be too big for regular routes out of CWL.

Although it is great for those interested in Welsh aviation, and FFB in particular, to have such access to that airline's MD, I wonder how far along the line they have actually got if the MD is able to spend so much time on a public forum.

I remember Barbara Cassani saying in her book that when she was setting up Go there were not enough hours in the day for her and her staff to do all the things necessary to set up a new airline. I can't think for a minute that she would have found time to post daily, often several times a day, to an aviation forum.

 

[welshguy39]

sounds good its not 737 300 i agree it maybe 700 also there web site still down been like it since sunday night