March 22nd - Flybe Flies Again: Everything You Need To Know.
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2022
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On 5 March 2020, the UK’s largest regional airline collapsed. Flybe was mired in debt. Yet on 13 April 2022, the familiar Q400 aircraft in a purple livery will take off from Birmingham airport, destination Belfast City – with 22 more routes to follow. Where will Flybe fly, and how will it fare?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to today's independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest on news on travelling in the UK and around the world. |
| 0:13.5 | Well, brought back to life cheap and cheerful. No, not me, flyby. I remember exactly where I was on the 5th of March |
| 0:24.8 | 2020, Birmingham Airport, where Britain's biggest regional airline had just shut up shop. It was a |
| 0:33.7 | terrible, terrible day. The airline Flyby had been mired in debt. In the course of a year, |
| 0:42.2 | it had burnt through £100 million from the investors who were supposed to be turning it round |
| 0:47.2 | and turning it into Virgin Connect. It was a great shame and more than 2,000 excellent staff lost their jobs. |
| 0:57.1 | Well, we thought that would be the last of it. |
| 0:59.2 | We thought that other airlines would come in and fill the viable routes. |
| 1:04.3 | And that looks to be pretty much what's happened. |
| 1:07.4 | You've got Logan Air, Eastern Airways, Ellingus, British Airways and EasyJet, |
| 1:12.5 | all coming in and saying, yeah, that looks reasonable. We will start flying on that route. |
| 1:18.6 | And yet, 25 months after Flybee failed from the 13th of April. You will see that Flybee is back. It's got its |
| 1:32.3 | headquarters in Birmingham. It's got its biggest base at Belfast City. And its first fright will be |
| 1:40.0 | going at 8.55am on the 13th of April from Birmingham to Belfast City. Then you've got a lot more |
| 1:47.9 | routes being launched to Glasgow from Belfar City to Leeds Bradford to London Heathrow. We're going to get |
| 1:54.0 | the Leeds Bradford to Heathrow route actually brought back. And that is something that both British Airways and BMI tried to make work and they couldn't. |
| 2:08.6 | We're also going to get Amsterdam to Birmingham and Amsterdam to East Midlands. |
| 2:14.6 | And crucially, because Flybee won't have a base in Amsterdam or London Heathrow |
| 2:21.3 | or East Midlands it's got to do routes well they're known as W formations |
| 2:27.3 | Birmingham Amsterdam Amsterdam, Birmingham it's slightly complex but they think they can get it to work. |
| 2:36.0 | In the summer, beginning on the 28th of May, we're going to get a big expansion. Amsterdam to |
| 2:42.3 | Belfar City. Heathrow to Amsterdam. And that's going to be in some competition with British Airways and |
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