www.flybe.com

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.

Reckons the price may carry on falling and its better to be more diversified and invested in a basket of stocks but not too many.

pluses and minuses spring to mind.

New CFO Start Date; Share Purchase
RNS
RNS Number : 6720J
Flybe Group PLC
16 June 2014



Flybe Group plc



("Flybe" or "the Group")



EFFECTIVE DATE FOR NEW CHIEF FINANCAL OFFICER AND DIRECTOR DESIGNATE'S PURCHASE OF SHARES

Flybe announces that Philip de Klerk, whose appointment as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") was announced on 28 April 2014, will join the Board as CFO with effect from 19 August 2014.

Separately, Mr de Klerk notified the Company on 13 June 2014 of the purchase that day of 72,000 ordinary shares in the Company ("Ordinary Shares"):

Date of purchase - 13 June 2014
No. of Ordinary Shares - 72,000
Price - 137p



16 June 2014

Low-cost airline Flybe is finding more passengers
Stephan Shakespeare
by Stephan Shakespeare
June 25, 2014, 2:06am
Flybe plane
Flybe's TV ads are resonating with consumers
The low-cost airline sector is currently in the spotlight. While much of the focus has been about Ryanair’s charm offensive to reposition itself, fellow carrier Flybe has also made waves in recent months.

A few weeks ago, Flybe announced a return to profits and a record number of passengers. After a few turbulent years when the company replaced its executive team and undertook an extensive restructuring, in April it launched a multimillion pound advertising campaign.

The activity focused on “time saving travel”, portraying the brand as a better and quicker way of getting around the country than road and rail.

I have used YouGov’s BrandIndex tool to look at whether the adverts have had any impact on the public’s view of the airline. The good news for Flybe is that its “think minutes not miles” TV campaign seems to have resonated with consumers.

The ad awareness metric, which assesses whether people have seen a brand’s advert over the previous two weeks, shows that Flybe’s score rose from 3.6 per cent at the end of March, to a high of 6.7 per cent midway through April – after the start of the marketing activity.

Over the same time period, the success of Flybe’s advertising campaign was mirrored in its Buzz Score, which measures whether consumers have heard anything positive or negative about the brand over the previous two weeks.

At the turn of the year, Flybe had a negative rating of -1.6. However, at the end of May once the campaign had been running a while, that rating had improved to a respectable +3.9.

Of course, the low-cost airline sector is very competitive and one improved set of results, record passenger numbers and a resonant advertising campaign does not mean Flybe can rest on its laurels.

The battle of the budget carriers will continue, but the signs are good for Flybe as it continues its battle for consumers’ hearts and minds.

Stephan Shakespeare is the chief executive of YouGov

tipped in IC.....
Airline stocks lose altitude, but for how long?
hTTp://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/2014/06/25/shares/sectors/airline-stocks-lose-altitude-but-for-how-long-mImeiqdgon5DAAnPIHtFNM/article.html

FAVOURITES:

While we stop short of upgrading our neutral stance on the airline sector’s dominant players, opportunities for investors keen to diversify their portfolios with an airline holding appear to be emerging. Recovery play Flybe (FLYB) offers the most attractive growth profile having declared maiden profits this year, although the shares have weakened recently and may have further to fall before support kicks in.

'Why I'm buying shares in Flybe'

Each week we look at a promising mid-cap share. This week: Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline
By Kyle Caldwell

8:02AM BST 27 Jun 2014


Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, has had a turbulent time on the stock market.


The shares have shed 65pc since the company floated in December 2010. Concerns over soaring fuel costs and airport charges have led investors to rush for the exits.


But some fund managers say its fortunes are about to change. Neil Veitch, who runs the SVM UK Opportunities fund, said the firm’s turnaround programme was starting to bear fruit. Over the past year it has cut costs by axing its worst-performing routes, a move that earlier this month helped the firm post its first full-year profit in four years.


“Following its flotation the company had been a serial disappointer,” said Mr Veitch. “Poor operational performance combined with a number of external shocks left the business in a weakened financial state. But following a change of management in 2013 the future appears brighter.


“The first step taken by Saad Hammad, the new boss, was to eliminate unprofitable routes and bases – 30 of the previous year’s 140 routes were cut. These changes, combined with an improving economic backdrop and relatively benign cost environment, should result in Flybe’s profitability improving markedly over the next few years. The share price fails to reflect this .”

Daily Telegraph