Good news as Loganair, Eastern and Blue Islands pick up many Flybe routes

There are three pieces of good news today for ex-Flybe customers.

Loganair to start flights on 16 ex-Flybe routes

Scottish airline Loganair has announced that it will pick up 16 Flybe routes.  The routes will be phased in over the next three months although the bulk will be up and running from next week.

All flights will operate from existing Loganair bases at Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Newcastle.

Here are the routes Loganair is launching:

• Aberdeen – Belfast City, Birmingham, Jersey, Manchester
• Belfast City – Aberdeen, Inverness
• Cardiff – Edinburgh
• Edinburgh – Exeter, Manchester, Newquay, Southampton, Cardiff
• Exeter – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle
• Glasgow – Exeter, Southampton
• Inverness – Belfast City, Birmingham, Jersey
• Jersey – Aberdeen, Inverness
• Newcastle – Exeter, Southampton
• Manchester – Aberdeen, Edinburgh
• Southampton – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle

It isn’t clear where Loganair is sourcing the aircraft to operate these routes, unless it is picking up some Flybe aircraft and crew.  If it isn’t, we may see some quick pruning of some second-tier existing Loganair routes.

Here is a review of my Loganair flight from Glasgow to Barra, landing on the beach!, last year.

Here is our review of the Clan Loganair loyalty programme.

British Airways codeshares with Loganair on some routes, so it is possible that some of these routes which could connect to mainline BA flights will eventually be bookable on ba.com too.

You can find out more on the Loganair website here.

Blue Islands to pick up Flybe Channel Islands services

One of the unfortunate casualties of the Flybe collapse is its franchisors Eastern Airways and Blue Islands.  Both of these airlines let Flybe sell seats on their behalf and flew in aircraft with Flybe livery (see image below).

Blue Islands, which operates from the Channel Islands, has been particularly badly hit because it has no booking engine of its own.  It is able to carry on flying but cannot sell tickets at the moment.

Blue Islands will honour all tickets issued by Flybe.  The airline has its own licence so is able to continue flyings its fleet of six ATR turboprops.

The following routes will continue, now branded as Blue Islands and not Flybe:

Jersey to London City, Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, East Midlands, Guernsey

Guernsey to Exeter, Southampton, Newquay

The airline has also offered to pick up the Newquay to Heathrow (soon to be Gatwick) route, which operates under public subsidy, and Exeter to Jersey and Guernsey.

Eastern Airways continues to operate and adds 3 routes

Eastern Airways is also very keen to stress that its Flybe-branded franchise flights ARE still operating.  It is only guaranteeing the current timetable until Sunday, however.

It is also taking over three Flybe routes – Aberdeen to Birmingham, Southampton to Manchester and Southampton to Newcastle.

An announcement will follow next week about future services.  As with Blue Islands, there is currently no way of booking an Eastern Airways flight online.  It is likely that Eastern has not been paid for tickets purchased via Flybe recently.

Eastern Airways currently flies or has announced the following routes.  This includes the three new routes above:

• Teesside – Aberdeen, London City, Southampton, Cardiff, Dublin, Isle of Man, Belfast City
• Aberdeen – Newcastle, Humberside, Wick, Birmingham
• Anglesey – Cardiff
• Belfast City – Teesside
• Birmingham – Aberdeen
• Cardiff – Anglesey, Teesside
• Dublin – Teesside
• Humberside – Aberdeen
• Isle of Man – Teesside
• Leeds Bradford – Southampton
• London City – Teesside
• Manchester – Southampton
• Newcastle – Aberdeen, Southampton
• Southampton – Leeds Bradford, Teesside, Manchester, Newcastle
• Wick – Aberdeen