berneyarms
Established Member
Landed safely at Beja in Portugal.
The Exeter-based regional airline's board confirmed it was "in discussions with a number of strategic operators about a potential sale of the company".
Flybe said it was also reviewing other "strategic options", including cutting more flights in the face of challenges.
A spokesman for the airline said there was no threat to tickets and flights that had already been purchased as a result of the review.
Last month, the airline warned full-year losses would be £22m, blaming falling consumer demand, a weaker pound and higher fuel costs.
Latest results, published on Wednesday, show that pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 September fell by 54% to £7.4m, on revenues down by 2.4% to £419.2m.
The airline's shares have fallen by almost 75% since September.
The Exeter-based airline is now valued at about £25m, far below the £215m it was valued at when it floated on the stock exchange in 2010.
They will be bought, no way they are allowed to fail.Flybe is up for sale
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46203183
They will be bought, no way they are allowed to fail.
Stobart will have a shot Im
And despite this, Flybe have just launched LCY-NCL (operated by T3).
https://www.routesonline.com/news/3...ybe-adds-london-city-newcastle-from-jan-2019/
Seems an odd choice, much as I like a S2000.
That's just a codeshare or retail agreement, isn't it?
The same Stobart group who are in court?Stobart will have a shot Im
And despite this, Flybe have just launched LCY-NCL (operated by T3).
https://www.routesonline.com/news/3...ybe-adds-london-city-newcastle-from-jan-2019/
Seems an odd choice, much as I like a S2000.
The crew (one Kazakhstani and one British) have been taken to hospital with minor injuries and, I would imagine, some new trousers.
Apparently instrument loss on take off. Took three attempts to land and guided in by F16s.
Newcastle to City was a bit of a flop when they tried it last time. The outbound service works OK for a quadrant market from about Hexham round to Blyth, heading for Canary Wharf specifically, but for Newcastle city centre and points south, and for origins/destinations in The City and West End of London, the train is still is still going to be as fast or faster.
One way does not make a viable route, however, and with rail services back to Newcastle at least half hourly, hanging around until 7pm for the sole flight back from City may numb the appeal to the high-yield market - not to say what impact the odd fog diversion to Gatwick or Southend might have on the route's reputation.
The Friday evening and Sunday evening services could be popular with the weekly commuters.
T3 aircraft do seem to spend a lot of their time sat idle on ramps, but this isn't how i'd personally get their utilisation up.
The ATC recording is doing the rounds. Absolutely terrifying! Caps doffed to the controllers though, handled it very well.
Well, I think it's a very dangerous assumption to make that the train is any more reliable. The ECML wires seem to be done more often than they're up, and with catastrophic delays as a result. I think the reliability of the ECML is just as tarnished. At least with a diversion it's usually pretty swift and a train from Southend (which is where City usually diverts to).
Not expecting a wholesale shift to the new City service, but given a small plane, small airport etc it should work out. You don't need that many to half fill a S2000 (given it carries on to Aberdeen).
Absolutely I may be wrong, but considering the factors that generally contribute towards a successful domestic route, Newcastle and London City as a pair doesn’t obviously display many of them.
And, given that the target audience has to be high yield to make something like this work, attracting time sensitive, cost insensitive passengers, diversions are a big deal even if they’re infrequent. The wires on the ECML aren’t 100% ‘reliable’, it’s true, but even when they’re down you can generally still be fed, watered and continue to work. And regular users know the score.
Being delayed, circling, and then being dumped at even Southend to be decanted on to C2C just won’t wash more than a few times with the big spenders. And when Crossrail opens, any few Aberdeen passengers who might otherwise suffer a prop with a stop may find it more reliable still to stick with a BA Airbus from Heathrow.
I’m supportive of anything that sustainably develops Newcastle Airport routewise, but we’d probably get more out of a Frankfurt, a Munich, more to Dublin, etc., etc. Even Aberdeen > Newcastle > Inverness as a triangle might bring something more useful to the market from a competitive point of view.
We’ll see, anyhow.
But I would suggest that the irritating journey time is a feature of Newcastle, combined with regular delays on the trains and bad roads means Newcastle is pretty good fodder for domestic air travel. The point on being able to work on the train and not on the plane is valid, however.
I think given the amount of passengers through City generally means the delays aren't terminal.
I'm pretty sure the flight will survive for at least 12 months. The passengers will bounce between the train and the plane, as each group experiences a big delay on the trains and a diversion on the plane. They will then all switch back again, rinse and repeat. If nothing else the early doors arrival time will help with attractiveness, even if the evening flights aren't as popular.
Certainly in terms of connections a Germany or Ireland flight would help, but the question is why there is not already a flight there? What is the profile of the passengers?
Certainly in terms of connections a Germany or Ireland flight would help, but the question is why there is not already a flight there? What is the profile of the passengers?
As @Bletchleyite notes though, you need frequency (or an unassailable time advantage) to really make an overland domestic service work in the UK. It's all very well getting down to London for an early meeting, but an Anytime rail ticket allows you to get back to King's Cross and never wait for more than thirty minutes for a train back to the North East. Having no option to wait until the dark hours of the evening for the sole flight just doesn't have the same appeal.
Generally-speaking what you also need is interline connections, too. Loads out of Newcastle to Heathrow are often c80% for connections. That's not City's thing, and routes like Edinburgh are viable only because of a) frequency and b) banking being almost co-located in The Wharf and Edinburgh, generating enough origin and destination (point-to-point) traffic.
Newcastle and the North East has always been a blind-spot for the Star Alliance (ie Lufthansa). I'm minded to suspect that this may be in part be down to some long-standing reliance on gerrymandered figures from bmi used to justify the rundown and suspension of Durham Tees Valley flights (which, for the record, were ultimately canned to free up slots at Heathrow for Lufthansa Italia flights from and to Milan - and that went well, didn't it?!).
Otherwise for Star:
Dusseldorf has been a long-running route for Lufthansa, albeit with a regional jet until it was bounced to Eurowings and now, miraculously, supports an A320, as Eurowings seem to actually be marketing connections off it.
Brussels has always been unreliable, right back to the Sabena days when connections were far too short at Brussels and were constantly missed. It's now operated by bmi Regional and not strongly marketed for connections.
Newark started with United, stopped seasonally, restarted and stopped again, utillising an old 757 that was bedevilled by lengthy delays on a regular basis, with not much reported contingency to get folks rerouted.
Route development and presence at the route planning conferences never seems to be particularly strong from the Newcastle Airport side, either. They do, however, regularly seem to be slightly in awe of Emirates and have to be reminded into promoting connections through Heathrow, Paris and Amsterdam.
Outside of Star, Dublin may have more potential, I think, for US traffic with pre-clearance, but the current Stobart operated flight is timed more for O&D than for connections, and there's often a long wait inbound to get back to Newcastle. When there are enough routes West out of Dublin to make it viable, I'd hope that an increase in frequency and perhaps also per flight capacity to and from Newcastle would also follow.
Blimey, adding Heathrow costs when you are trying to get bought out. Probably better news for the route in terms of connections, though.BBC Radio Cornwall have reported today that Flybe is moving its Newquay service from Gatwick to Heathrow in April 2019.
Ben
Flybe and Virgin Atlantic have confirmed they are in talks about a sale or closer alliance.
The move comes after cash-strapped Flybe put itself up for sale earlier this month.
The Exeter-based regional airline said that Virgin was "one of the parties" it has been in discussions with.
Last month, Flybe warned its full-year losses would be £22m, blaming falling consumer demand, a weaker pound and higher fuel costs.
Confirming the talks, Flybe added that there was no certainty that an offer would be made by Virgin.
In a short statement, Virgin Atlantic said it "has a trading and codeshare relationship with Flybe and confirms that it is reviewing its options in respect of Flybe which range from enhanced commercial arrangements to a possible offer for Flybe".
Since hitting a price of nearly 50p in March this year, Flybe's shares have fallen by more than three-quarters. On Friday, they jumped by nearly half to 14.3p.
Flybe, whose roots date back to 1979, has 78 planes operating from smaller airports such as London City, Southampton, Cardiff, Aberdeen and Norwich to destinations in the UK and Europe.
It serves about eight million passengers a year, but has been struggling to recover from a costly IT overhaul and has been trying to reduce costs.
Blimey, surprised they didn't do it already.Low Cost Carrier Wizz Air is to launch a new route between Gatwick & Budapest, Hungary from 31st March 2019. This will be a daily flight & should using Airbus A321 aircraft.
Cheers
Ben
Blimey, surprised they didn't do it already.
Ah right. Fair play mate.The already do London Luton - Budapest. So it appears this is in addition to their current offering.
How many are St Athan.The last of the Boeing 767 jets in used with British Airways has now been retired.
Last flight was from Heathrow to Larnaca & return at the weekend - Final commercial jet used for said flight was G-BZHA according to an article on 'Business Traveller' this morning.
This and another 767 jet from BA's fleet have now been retired to St. Athan in Wales.
Ben