www.flybe.com

It's time authorities introduced stiffer penalties for drunks who behave like this.

Virgin flight in hijack scare




Virgin Australia has dismissed reports that one of its planes was hijacked by a passenger and forced to land in Bali.

It said initial reports on Indonesia television of a hijack were "completely incorrect" and that the passenger concerned was simply drunk and had tried to storm the cockpit.


A spokeswoman for the airline said the unarmed passenger had been handcuffed by crew and restrained in a seat at the back of flight VA41 from Brisbane.


According to reports, troops has boarded the plane on arrival and the passenger, a 28-year-old Australian, was arrested.


All 137 passengers and seven crew were evacuated unharmed.


"At no point was the safety of the aircraft in question," said a Virgin Australia statement.

Flybe puts 1.8 million winter seats on sale


By Phil Davies | 29 April 2014 at 08.38 GMT

Almost two million tickets have gone on sale today (Tuesday) in the first phase of Flybe’s winter 2014 schedule.

An initial 1.8 million seats are available from across the UK to 35 domestic destinations, France, Holland and Germany.

The winter schedule announcement follows the airline’s five-year agreement with London City Airport to start five routes from October 27 to Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Exeter and Inverness.

Winter flights lead in at £24.99 one-way from Birmingham to Newquay.

Further announcements on the winter schedule will be released in the coming weeks, the airline said.

The airline’s chief commercial officer Paul Simmons said: “We expect our winter schedule to be extremely popular with those looking for affordable priced and convenient flights especially during key travel period such a school holidays and the festive period.

“Dublin, Edinburgh and Paris are expected to be top sellers with winter travellers – especially business travellers, plus Cologne, Florence and Toulouse will be popular with customers seeking a cultural city break.”

An interesting week !

Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, is celebrating the take-off on Saturday 17th May 2014 of its inaugural flight to Newquay Cornwall Airport from London Southend Airport, operating the three times a week summer service through to 27th September with one way fares from £20.99 including taxes and charges.



To mark the landmark event Flybe today positioned a surf simulator machine at Exchange Square adjacent to Liverpool Street train station for commuters and
local office workers to get into the holiday spirit and try out their best surf moves.

Paul Simmons, Flybe Chief Commercial Officer, commented: “In celebrating this first flight, we decided to bring some Flybe fun to the commuters and travellers using Liverpool Street Station and its environs. The surf simulator looks set to be a big hit and I hope it sparks some enthusiasm for those who see it to consider riding the crest of some real Newquay waves this summer.

“Newquay marks an exciting start to our network from London Southend as it’s an important tourism route that connects the popular southwest coast with the capital. It also offers a quick and convenient alternative to lengthy road or rail journeys, perfectly proving that we are ‘the fastest way from A to Flybe’!”






London Southend Airport Operations Director, David Lister added: "We are delighted to welcome Flybe back to London Southend Airport, especially as they are resurrecting the route to Newquay that,operated by another carrier in summer 2013, proved so popular with people across London and Essex, plus also with Cornish people travelling to London. We are also pleased that Flybe selected London’s newest airport - London Southend - to operate this important route, which will provide quick and easy connections to the City in just 53 minutes by train. We look forward to developing our relationship with Flybe as our route network expands in 2014."

About Flybe flights London Southend - Newquay Airport:
•Operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 17th May – 27th September.
•One way fares from £20.99 including taxes and charges
•Flights depart Newquay at 1105 and arrive London Southend at 1225
•Flights depart London Southend at 12:50 and arrive Newquay at 1410

Flybe Announces Eight New Routes For Winter From Birmingham

20th May 2014

Including two brand new routes to Hamburg and Oslo with choice of up to 14 flights a week and year-round extension of six new summer routes

Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, will operate two new routes from Birmingham Airport this winter namely a daily service to Hamburg and Oslo from 26th October through to 27th March 2015. Seats are on sale from today (20th May 2014) at www.flybe.com with one way fares from £39.99 including taxes and charges.

Already Birmingham Airport’s largest carrier, the airline has also announced (20th May 2014) that, due to early successes, it will extend to year-round on six of the new routes it is operating this summer. Flybe will continue to operate up to 28 weekly flights to Cologne, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Florence and Oporto with frequency aimed to provide convenience for business travellers and those passengers wanting a short break on the continent. Due to the popularity of its summer twilight flights to Reykjavik, it’s also moving this three times a week service to daytime flying, also with effect from 26th October.

The move is estimated to result in Flybe carrying an additional 100,000 passengers a year at Birmingham Airport. Altogether, it’s another exciting week for Flybe in Birmingham as its last four remaining inaugural flights for summer take off to Newquay, Bordeaux, Palma and Toulouse.

Fred Kochak, Flybe’s UK Routes Director, said: “We said we would be investing in a major way at Birmingham and it is now our largest ever base. Today’s announcement gives additional weight to that commitment and I’m delighted that, as a result of the Flybe route assessment model, we have been able to add even more destinations as well as choice for our Midlands’ business and leisure passengers.”

William Pearson, Birmingham Airport’s Aviation Development Director, added:
“Flybe’s Birmingham route network is going from strength to strength after announcing nine new routes already this year and becoming our largest carrier.

“Oslo is another new destination for us and we’re very pleased that Flybe is recognising the need to serve these markets and satisfy demand to give business and leisure travellers the destinations that they want from Birmingham Airport.”

Fred Kochak added: “Flybe already connects more than 1.5 million passengers a year from Birmingham both domestically and throughout Europe. Today's news further demonstrates our commitment to providing direct air-links from the regions of the UK, which means passengers do not have to face long road or rail journeys to south east hub airports.”


In total, Flybe will operate up to 350 flights a week from Birmingham on 26 routes as part of its 2014-15 winter schedule.

New flights to Europe are hit for Flybe
.
6:25pm Thursday 22nd May 2014 in News.

New European destinations proving popular

ALMOST 10,000 tickets have been sold for new routes from Southend Airport.

Flybe, operated by Stobart Air, reports strong interest in routes to Groningen, Muster Osnabruck and Rennes which commence on June 5.

Services to Cologne Bonn, Caen Normandie and Antwerp start on July 3 and from July 10 the Maastricht route will come into operation. Monday was the busiest day yet for advance ticket bookings.

Simon Fagan, chief commercial officer for Stobart Air, said: “With almost 10,000 tickets already sold, we are on course to meet our target of carrying up to 700,000 passengers on our new London Southend routes within three years.




“Weekend bookings are quite popular and we are seeing a surge in weekday bookings as the launch day approaches.”

He added “These three routes are clearly resonating with both business and leisure passengers in Southend. Münster in Germany is a vibrant city that is home to thousands of university students.

Roger Clements, the airport’s managing director, said “We are very encouraged by the growing demand for the three routes commencing on 5 June. This bookings surge proves that London Southend is continuing to become a popular travel hub for both continental and London bound passengers. As the popularity of London Southend grows we hope that these recent route expansions will bring a boost to the economy to the local area.”

Ready for another leg up? Sizeable buy order being worked through in 300s since this morning.

Someone building a sizeable position here in 300 lots the last two days.

Looks ready to test the April highs again. Final results due out in the next few weeks.

Flybe welcomes APD debate in Scottish parliament


03 June 2014 at 08.03 GMT


Flybe has welcomed efforts to examine the issue of unfair Air Passenger Duty during a key debate in the Scottish parliament today (Tuesday).

The regional airline says that scrapping the controversial tax on air travel is long overdue and hopes Holyrood can make significant progress on the issue.

The Westminster government has made changes to APD banding, which will see a reduction in taxation of passengers travelling on long-haul flights from next year.

But Flybe believes more action is needed and continues to call on chancellor George Osborne to scrap the tax, which it claims hits consumers, harms tourism and hurts economic growth.

The airline believes that today’s debate in Scotland represents a fresh opportunity to examine the economic impact of the air tax.

Chief executive Saad Hammad (pictured) said: “We welcome today’s debate as an important step towards rectifying this taxation which places us, as a UK regional airline, at a competitive disadvantage and continues to damage Scotland’s aspirations for economic growth.

“Across the aviation industry, scrapping APD would not only incentivise airlines to provide new routes and enhance travel for Scotland’s passengers, it would also significantly boost business and the economy.”

He added: “Scottish business people and consumers have had to count the cost of paying this tax twice when travelling domestically to an English airport – a disproportionate financial penalty which must not be allowed to continue.

“New destinations going hand-in-hand with considerably more passengers can only mean one thing – growth – and the incentive to capitalise on Scotland’s rich tourism experience and established business sector, with more employment and investment, has to be a major consideration in today’s debate.”

Tipped in SCSW today evidently.

Yep should rocket monday morning.

Flybe takes off
StockMarketWire.com
Budget carrier Flybe announced a return to profit in the year to end-March, following a successful turnaround and record UK passenger numbers.

· 11.1% growth in Revenue under management to £868.4m (2012/13: £781.5m) driven by significant growth in white label revenue in Finland

· £620.5m of Group revenue, up by 1.0% (2012/13: £614.3m)

· Record passenger numbers and load factors in UK business

· 3.3% decrease in Group operating costs (excluding restructuring) at £619.5m (2012/13: £640.9m)

· Adjusted profit before tax, net restructuring and surplus capacity costs of £1.7m (2012/13: loss of £23.6m), with profit improvement across all areas of the business

· £8.1m of profit before tax (2012/13: loss before tax £41.1m)

· Operating cash inflow before restructuring of £7.3m (2012/13: cash outflow of £1.6m)

· Total cash of £218.4m at 31 March 2014 (2013: £54.7m), and net assets of £194.1m (2013: £48.1m)

· £150.1m net equity fund raise in March 2014 reflecting investor confidence in Flybe's future

OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Flybe UK:

· 6.9% increase in passenger numbers in UK scheduled airline at 7.7 million (2012/13: 7.2 million) despite 1.4% reduction in seat capacity

· Load factor of 69.5% (2012/13: 64.1%)

· 1.8% improvement in passenger revenue per seat at £49.70 (2012/13: £48.84)

· 55.1% sector share of UK regional market (2012/13: 52.4%)

· Operating from 7 UK bases and serving 64 airports in total throughout the UK and Europe**

· Major expansion announced at London City Flybe Finland:

· £247.9m of revenue in first full year of expanded Finnair joint venture operations (2012/13: £167.2m)

· Service standards and punctuality on and above target MRO:

· Profit before tax and restructuring £2.2m (2012/13: £0.7m)

· Operating costs down £6.6m to £33.2m (2012/13: £39.8m)

Saad Hammad, CEO, stated: "2013/14 marks the rebirth of Flybe!

"We implemented a turnaround plan to stabilise the business and then successfully raised over £150m net to strengthen our balance sheet and drive sustainable profitable growth. The return to profitability is a great step forwards. This enables us to start implementing our twin-engine strategy of growing our UK branded business and our white label operations across Europe.

"We have made a good start to FY15, in line with our expectations.

"We are moving to build on our early success. We have a plan and we have the firepower. The Group is now well-placed to become Europe's best local airline."

Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

Beats analyst expectations on profit.

UPDATE 1-British carrier Flybe posts profit as cost cutting pays off

11 Jun 2014 - 08:13

Full-year pretax profit 8.1 mln stg vs analyst est 6.4 mln stg
Revenue 620.5 mln stg vs analyst est 623.9 mln stg
Shares rise as much as 4.3 pct in early trading
(Adds details from press release, background, share movement)

June 11 (Reuters) – British carrier Flybe Group Plc posted its first pretax profit in four years, beating market estimates, as cost-cutting measures it undertook paid off.

The company also made a good start to full-year 2015 and was trading in line with its expectations, Chief Executive Saad Hammad said in a statement.

Profits at a number of European airlines have been under pressure over the past few years as cash-strapped customers sparingly took flights in the years post the economic meltdown of 2008, adding to the burden of soaring fuel costs and higher airport charges.

Flybe kick-started a turnaround programme last January, trimming costs by giving up airport slots, cutting jobs, exiting unprofitable flight routes and grounding surplus fleet.

These measures helped the budget carrier swing to a pretax profit of 8.1 million pounds ($13.6 million) for the year ended March 31. Its books reflected a pretax loss of 41.1 million pounds a year earlier. [ID:nRSK3406Ja] Revenue jumped 1 percent to 620.5 million pounds.

Analysts on average expected a pretax profit of 6.4 million pounds, on revenue of 623.9 million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"The return to profitability is a great step forward. This enables us to start implementing our twin-engine strategy of growing our UK branded business and our white label operations across Europe," Hammad said on Wednesday.

Although Flybe has issued a string of profit warnings since listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2010, a recovery in the UK economy could buoy prospects for the carrier, whose interests are split between business and leisure customers.

Fyle said the general economic outlook in its most important market, the UK, has improved, with a 1.9 percent growth reported in the year to December 2013.

Most commentators are expecting 2014 to see growth in the range of 2.4 percent to 3.5 percent, Chairman Simon Laffin said.

Flybe, which serves 35 UK airports, also flies people from the UK to other European destinations.

Shares in the Exter, England-heaquartered company rose 4.3 percent in early trading on Wednesday.

($1 = 0.5956 British Pounds)

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) ((esha.vaish@thomsonreuters.com)(within UK +44 20 7542 1810, outside UK +91 80 6749 1136; Reuters Messaging: esha.vaish.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

Keywords: FLYBE GROUP RESULTS/

Liberum says Flybe improves but has more work to do
11 June 2014 09:30

Liberum Capital has increased its price target on Flybe after the regional airline moved into the black, but said more work was needed.

Liberum reiterated its buy recommendation on Flybe and lifted its price target to 190p from 175p.

Flybe, which has axed hundreds of jobs and several bases to turn around its recession-hit UK business, on Wednesday unveiled adjusted pre-tax profit in the year to March 31st of £1.7m, against a £23.6m loss a year ago.

UK passenger numbers rose 6.9% to 7.7m despite a 1.4% fall in seat capacity.

Liberum said the results were "a clear improvement" on the substantial loss a year ago.

Commercial initiatives were leading to better volumes and revenue per seat while a 21% cut in staff costs were reducing lower total and unit costs.

But the broker said: "Further improvements are required, which we see coming from the return to profitable growth, to drive better aircraft use and pilot productivity."

Shares fell 2p or 1.4% to 138p at 09:35 in London.

PW

Positive results from FLYB hit by two other airlines issuing profit warnings this week and the FTSE going t--s-up. "Ride the dips" - who said that?!:-)

Mc Donalds.???

V funny gf ! I thought it was that Buffett chap, but I could be wrong. :-)

Buffet!!!!!! not sure I know he averaged down though.. Dont like that myself.

Just reading a book by Alpesh Patel and he is cetainly against it.

Ill get back to you why if i can find it.