Flybe cuts flights due to lack of aircraft
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The relaunch of Flybe – which we covered here, Rhys was on the first flight – has hit a bumpy patch. Two leasing companies which had agreed to supply it with aircraft have deferred deliveries until after the Summer, and despite arranging short-term loans from airlines in Greece and Spain, it cannot meet its planned schedule.
The following routes will see a reduction in planned frequencies for the rest of the Summer 2022 season:
- Belfast City to Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Southampton
- Birmingham to Edinburgh and Glasgow
The following routes have been pulled entirely for the Summer 2022 season:
- Belfast City to Aberdeen, Inverness and Newcastle
- Birmingham to Aberdeen
We can only hope that we are not about to see a repeat of the problems at ‘old Flybe’. The airline was partially brought down by the huge volume of EC261 compensation payments it had to make as large numbers of flights were cancelled due to aircraft availability issues.
Luckily for ‘new Flybe’ it hasn’t been discounting as hard as its predecessor. Selling flights for £9.99 and then having to pay €250 in compensation when the flight was cancelled was never a great business model.
