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Flybe on the edge, tonight apparently (Wed 04/03)

 Poster: A snowHead
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Flybe set to collapse tonight according to

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51746564

Will be a pain as I booked a flight on it yesterday, and its our major transport link Sad
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So sorry to hear that. I used them to fly to Hannover in Germany a few times and never had any issues with them.
Sad times. Sad
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Just reading this - its going to cause huge problems for a lot of people if it goes under. Lots of holidays will be affected. Locally Southampton airport will really struggle, its around 90% of all the flights from the airport!
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So sad - going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people as apart from international flights they link so many regional airports together.
Was due to fly from Southampton on Saturday, but thankfully snapped up some BA Gatwick flights at similiar times earlier this evening as was only going to be £15 to cancel if the situation changed - glad I’ve got them now!
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Suspect that a few airlines running with tight margins will suffer world wide right no because of coronavirus.
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@thecramps, agreed but in the case of Flybe the writing was on the wall a LONG time before Corona
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51746564

bust
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Over the edge now, into the abyss.
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Looks like the partner airlines, franchises, of Flybe are still flying, so Blue Islands etc seem to be operating still
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Blue Island and Eastern are still operating. Stobart are not.

Desperately sorry for those in turmoil this morning, the loss of a holiday is upsetting, losing your livelihood, devastating.
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I went to NYC the other day and there were more staff than passengers ....
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Screwed my weekend plans, will now spend several hours driving up the M5/M6 instead of relaxing in the airport with a beer and then a 50 minute flight.

But a bigger problem for my mate who has been working there for 4 years and now finds himself looking for work. Of course it's not completely unexpected, but that does t make it any easier. And there's potential knock on of Exeter, Southampton and Newquay airports having a dramatic reduction in number of flights.
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Not unexpected but a major blow to several UK regional airports, eg Southampton, Exeter, Birmingham, Belfast, Newquay.

Given government talk a lot about improving transport and connectivity, particularly to boost the economy outside of the south east, are they going to help?

Commiserations to all directly affected, staff, customers with bookings and people who rely on the airports affected for their living.
Sad
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
PeakyB wrote:


Commiserations to all directly affected, staff, customers with bookings and people who rely on the airports affected for their living.
Sad


As always, you have to feel for the staff and anyone with bookings which will now not be fulfilled.
However, it does appear that FlyBe's business has not been viable for a long time so this was very likely to be the outcome.

The TV news last night included a very short interview with a man in (I think) Exeter who said "I work in Greenwich"; the BBC news app this morning mentions a man who "runs a van hire business in Glasgow" but who lives in Oxfordshire.
I have long had concerns that faster or cheaper travel options (Inc HS2) are encouraging this type of long-distant commuting which, IMV, is neither desirable or - especially with the current focus on carbon emissions - sustainable.
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Seems the govt. were all for bailing them out until Coronavirus struck, from what I could gather from the BBC report this morning.
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dunc999 wrote:
Seems the govt. were all for bailing them out until Coronavirus struck, from what I could gather from the BBC report this morning.


There was a suggestion the taxpayer (the Govt has no money of its own) could "lend" £100m to keep the airline afloat, whilst cutting or abolishing APD on domestic flights. I guess we must assume ticket prices would have remained the same with the APD being kept by the airline, thus improving cash flow & profitability.
Apparently the APD changes are not allowed under EU law (which applies till end 2020) so, with no prospect of improved financial performance this year, the mooted loan was scrapped.
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EU competition rules prevented the £100m bail out talked of late 2019 (note : no Brexit dig here !!) ... plus the other airlines piled in and cried foul. Virgin plus Stobart and others threw in £30m.

Reason for failure is business model .. not enough passengers willing to pay the true cost (plus taxes) plus overexpansion .. then there was Coronavirus impact.

Reality is that if it made a profit it would still be alive ...
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And Southampton Airport could be next. 90% of all its through put with Flybe. Who in their right mind relies on one client doing 90% of their t/o? Id be bricking it if I had one client generating that high a t/o of my business
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@Phyllis Stein, I think the overexpansion is the main problem. Flybe were a solid regional airline, the flights I did from Exeter to Manchester and back were always near full, that's the type of thing they did well. But getting a load of jets and trying to compete with the budget airlines flying to Europe was a mistake. The routes for business were popular but the tourist type stuff were a but of an issue.
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The Isle of Man must be another place really suffering with the demise of Flybe. Apart from the ferry is there any other way to get there?
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johnE wrote:
The Isle of Man must be another place really suffering with the demise of Flybe. Apart from the ferry is there any other way to get there?


Private jet? Very Happy
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I suspect people with hospital appointments in the UK from the Isle of Man must be getting a bit scared, but it seems that the IoM goverment has told people to make their own arrangements and they will be reimbursed. Lewis Hamilton's jet must be doing a very brisk trade across the Irish sea.
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SnoodlesMcFlude wrote:
And there's potential knock on of Exeter, Southampton and Newquay airports having a dramatic reduction in number of flights.


And Cardiff Sad Whilst a smaller operation, it was a treat for us to go 45 mins to the airport. Back to BRS and BHX I guess.
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Quote:

And Cardiff Sad Whilst a smaller operation, it was a treat for us to go 45 mins to the airport. Back to BRS and BHX I guess.

BHX may not be so useful. As far as I can remember flybe were the only airline flying from Birmingham to Chambery and Lyon and the only cheep way to get to Scotland
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johnE wrote:
Lewis Hamilton's jet must be doing a very brisk trade across the Irish sea.


I think LH sold his plane as he's now a green vegan car driving type Toofy Grin
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Hmm. It's just fine for the government to take over a failing train company, but not a crucial regional airline. Odd.
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achilles wrote:
Hmm. It's just fine for the government to take over a failing train company, but not a crucial regional airline. Odd.


The owners of Flybe have plenty of cash, they clearly thought it was a lost cause so why should the Gov. pump money in that they wouldn't get back? Plus I think it's against EU law which we may be still governed by.

The railway franchises are still 'owned' by the Gov though, so a different case entirely.
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I guess the proof of the "business model"/"quality of management" mix would be if Easyjet or Stobart or BA (who have doubtless been running a slide-rule over the Flybe route network for some time) make a bid for some of the routes.
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SnoodlesMcFlude wrote:
Screwed my weekend plans, will now spend several hours driving up the M5/M6 instead of relaxing in the airport with a beer and then a 50 minute flight.

But a bigger problem for my mate who has been working there for 4 years and now finds himself looking for work. Of course it's not completely unexpected, but that does t make it any easier. And there's potential knock on of Exeter, Southampton and Newquay airports having a dramatic reduction in number of flights.


Why not get a train?
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Zorrac wrote:

Will be a pain as I booked a flight on it yesterday, and its our major transport link Sad

At least you haven't left yet. I feel for those who're out in Europe and expected to return on Flybe.
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snowymum wrote:
SnoodlesMcFlude wrote:
Screwed my weekend plans, will now spend several hours driving up the M5/M6 instead of relaxing in the airport with a beer and then a 50 minute flight.

But a bigger problem for my mate who has been working there for 4 years and now finds himself looking for work. Of course it's not completely unexpected, but that does t make it any easier. And there's potential knock on of Exeter, Southampton and Newquay airports having a dramatic reduction in number of flights.


Why not get a train?


Train service in the southwest is appalling!
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Train service X country from SW appalling and expensive. London good but expensive.

Flybe in trouble for many years. The only surprise was they lasted as long as they did. Expensive, dreadful noisy turboprops on which you could not even take normal sized skis and non economical sized jets when competing against Ryanair and EJ.

Very sorry for most of the people who worked for them.
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snowymum wrote:
Why not get a train?


Tl:dr it's expensive and inefficient.

Multiple reasons, if you really want to know: I finish work around half 4 and would need to get to the station on the other side of town. At best I could get there for the 1730 which is 125 quid. I get in at 10. Two days later I return, getting a 1730 train which gets in at 2245 and is another 125 quid.

Alternatively the flights would have taken off at 1830 and landed at 1930 and returned at 20:40 landing at 2140. Oh, and could get return for 80 quid if you timed it right (200 if you didnt).

Or I can drive, leave straight from work and be there by about 9 (and won't need picking up). Leave at about 6 on the Sunday and hopefully be back by 10. Cost of fuel mostly covered by work so I'll just have wear and tear.
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snowymum wrote:
SnoodlesMcFlude wrote:
Screwed my weekend plans, will now spend several hours driving up the M5/M6 instead of relaxing in the airport with a beer and then a 50 minute flight.

But a bigger problem for my mate who has been working there for 4 years and now finds himself looking for work. Of course it's not completely unexpected, but that does t make it any easier. And there's potential knock on of Exeter, Southampton and Newquay airports having a dramatic reduction in number of flights.


Why not get a train?


On Jeremy Vine today a businessman who had booked to go to fly from Exeter to Glasgow. Try doing that one by train, let alone cost.
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jafa wrote:
And Southampton Airport could be next. 90% of all its through put with Flybe. Who in their right mind relies on one client doing 90% of their t/o? Id be bricking it if I had one client generating that high a t/o of my business


Yeah, can't see Exeter airport lasting either. One of my clients too, as was Flybe until a few years back. Really nice bunch of people Sad
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Loganair have stepped in to take up 16 of the routes, so some of the links with Scotland will quickly be running in a similar way.

https://www.loganair.co.uk/our-story/latest-news/2020/loganair-steps-in-to-safeguard-uk-air-routes-after-flybe-collapse
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countryman wrote:
Expensive, dreadful noisy turboprops on which you could not even take normal sized skis.....



Turboprops do have some advantages, particularly on short haul routes (as well as disadvantages): https://www.pilotmall.com/blogs/news/turboprop-vs-jet-learn-their-advantages-and-disadvantages
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Quote:

Expensive, dreadful noisy turboprops

I like the turboprobs and on short routes they are more efficient than the jets
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Yeah I quite enjoyed the turboprop flights, but then I have noise cancelling headphones on for every flight so the noise doesn't bother me.
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What I don't understand is they continued to sell tickets at stupidly low prices for years when they were not making any money. We have got too used to thinking that it should only cost £50 to fly from London to Glasgow etc. Flying costs money and the ticket prices should reflect this. Unfortunately due to holding prices so low there is only so long you can do that and you go bust. The bigger airlines can play games with their big $$$ transatlantic flights helping pay for a bit of the smaller routes but the likes of FlyBe can't do that.

It does cause major problems but I agree with not giving them a big loan. If they want bailing out then it should have been taken over with existing share holders loosing their stake. Their owners were VERY rich. They decided it was not something that could make money and were happy to just cut and run so and just loose the X millions already spent.
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