Flybe – some interesting hard numbers on what has been lost
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I don’t usually drop in external commentary, but I was sent this article from travel data and analytics group Cirium and I thought it was worth running. There are a lot of ‘facts’ floating around about Flybe which are not necessarily accurate.
Headline statistics
Flybe operated a total of 2,374 flights a week with 175,260 available seats from 43 different airports (January 2020)
It was the third largest airline in the UK, measured by volume of flights, after easyJet and British Airways
It represented 11% of all flights operated by UK carriers
Monopoly routes
83 routes were operated by Flybe as a monopoly, accounting for 86.4% of its network
As of January, 88.8% of Flybe’s domestic routes (52) were not served by any other carrier along with 82.6% of its international routes (31)
Flybe’s monopoly routes accounted for 10,543 flights per month, which means a total of 791,550 available seats have been lost on routes solely operated by Flybe
For domestic flights, the airline’s busiest monopoly route was between Manchester and Belfast, with 348 flights and 27,036 available seats per month
The second most popular domestic monopoly service was between Birmingham and Belfast, with 316 flights and 25,588 available seats per month
The third busiest was between Birmingham and Edinburgh, with 316 flights and 25,208 seats available each month
Top routes
On UK domestic routes, Flybe was the largest operator measured by monthly flights, operating approximately 7,500 services, which accounted for 36% of the market
Its weekly busiest route was between Amsterdam and Birmingham, operating a total of 82 services and 6,916 available seats
This was closely followed by flights between Edinburgh and London, with 82 services each week offering 6,396 available seats
Flights between Belfast and Manchester were third most popular, with 76 services and 5,896 available seats per week
Airports
Flybe operated from a total of 43 airports across the UK and Europe
It flew 67 services per week, with 5,226 available seats, from its home at Exeter Airport
Its busiest airport by available seats per week was Manchester, which operated 245 Flybe services with a total of 19,432 seats
Close behind were Birmingham Airport, which operated 225 Flybe services with 18,402 available seats, and Southampton Airport which operated 223 Flybe services with 16,566 available seats each week
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