www.flybe.com

The auction uncrossed @113 - which I assume IG would have closed @112.71 on their bid.

1 116.05 417 O 113.25 116.75 08:00:17 417
0 113.0 61 UT 116.0 116.5 08:00:06 61




As I said above - I find it more practical to not have a close stop during opening/closing/option auctions - you have to remember that at the end of the day, the SB companies are really just glorified bookies.

Skinnny

What if a company issues very bad news with a 6.30 am RNS and you haven't a stop ?

Would it be best if i edited the stop just before the close say from 5% to 10%

The RNS would be @7am not 6.30 - and its like any trade - SB or other - its down to your personal risk appetite, but if it was a bad RNS there is no guarantee that your stop would work (unless it is a guaranteed stop).

If a share closed @100p and your stop was @90p, but an unexpected RNS caused it to spike to 80p on opening - that is where your SB is likely to be stopped!

IG as said they have now lowed their guaranteed stops charge

alders - This probably sounds crazy to you, before you place your next trade don't concentrate on how much you are going to make profit wise, decide how much you are prepared to lose. In other words if the trade went pear shaped just how far are you prepared to let it drop before you get out. Just below support does it for me.

So looking at Flyb chart 100p.

Target - 1st target 130p resistance

Entry - I don't know what price you entered the trade yesterday, let's say 115p

Risk/Reward - For me I don't like the above odds - Evens.

This sounds very simplistic I know but it is the bottom line.

Now if you think Flyb will break resistance and go higher great get back in as long as you are prepared to lose 15 pips.

This is the only way you can learn to spread bet, get to know the share your trading. Keep the mindset how much am I prepared to lose rather than how much am I going to win.

Some interesting info on spread betting there. I don't spread bet, I'm just a boring investor who buys shares and pays for them, then hopefully/eventually I stick a bit of profit into my bank account. The only thing I bet on is the occasional golf tournament!

Nice chart Chris.:-)

db - Most give up after blowing their pots a couple of times. It's only with experience that i have learned not to lose too much :0) Never stop learning. I enjoy it as a hobby.

I bought in @116 yesterday , i have always been more concerned about how much i could lose ,that's why the stop was tight

alders - Yes I get that, so you are trading on fear. Charts are necessary to determine entry and exit points mate the sooner you at least attempt to learn how to read them the better. Nobody can tell you what to do imo alders you will have to go through the pain yourself :0)

"I stick a bit of profit into my bank account"

What is this 'profit'? :-)

A pure figment of my imagination skinny. :-)

Alex Salmond slams 'ludicrous' APD


By Lucy Huxley | 28 October 2014 at 08.21 GMT

Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, used the launch of Flybe’s new services from London City Airport this week to slam Air Passenger Duty, describing it as “a real imposition on regional connectivity”.

Speaking on Monday morning from Newham Council Offices, where guests watched as new Flybe services from Aberdeen, Inverness, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin and Exeter landed at London City, Salmond said: “The fact that on a £49 flight from Aberdeen, £13 of it is going on APD is outrageous and ludicrous. We need to have APD set at competitive levels so airlines like Flybe – and many others – can continue increasing the connectivity between the regions and London.

“These services being launched by Flybe today are so important. They are extremely useful to people and extremely beneficial to economies.

“For business customers, they left Aberdeen this morning and could have been out rowing on the Thames by 8am. And certainly in central London for a meeting by 9am.

"And the price and timings make it a huge leisure opportunity too. These Flybe flight are superb,” he said.

Salmond predicted the Flybe services would be a success, unlike Virgin Atlantic’s recently terminated regional service, Little Red.

He said: “These will be successful as they are designed for connectivity of cities in the region with London.

"Little Red was just a feeder service for its transatlantic flights, but people in the regions didn’t want that. It goes against our aviation strategy which is to get more direct international flights out of Scotland.”

Also speaking from the launch event, Janice Howgarth of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association, said: “Connections from Scotland to London are imperative. Regional and domestic flying is so important, particularly from places really far north like Aberdeen and Inverness. We have been crying out for this.”

She added: “It’s lovely to see Flybe on its feet again after such a difficult time. It’s absolutely brilliant what Saad Hammad and his team has done – Flybe is a great airline.”

Travel Weekly

Big Interview: Q&A with Flybe's Saad Hammad

By Ian Taylor | 28 October 2014 at 08.33 GMT

Flybe introduced services to six regional airports from London City this week. Chief executive Saad Hammad spoke to Ian Taylor

How serious was the situation at Flybe when you took over 14 months ago?

The airline was in deep trouble. Our cash position was precarious. Our costs were too high, even with the cost-reduction measures already under way.Our commercial capability was weak and too many routes were unprofitable.

Our network and organisation were complex and inefficient, we had surplus aircraft with types that were ill-matched to our network, and confidence was waning among stakeholders. Drastic action was needed.

What measures did you take?

I’d done a significant amount of due diligence before joining. Within the first month I launched the five Cs programme to move the business away from danger.

The first, cash, was about maximising financial headroom. The £20 million sale of slots at Gatwick (put together by the previous management) was one of the first things I signed. That gave the business sufficient runway for the transformation I had in mind.

The second, cost, was about immediate cost-reduction measures on top of those already under way. We took out £47 million of costs last year and sadly had to part with 1,100 employees, one-third of our staff.

The third was configuration: restructuring 40% of routes (exiting 30 and changing gauge and/or frequency on another 25), reducing the number of bases from 13 to six and grounding 14 aircraft – equal to 20% of our UK fleet. In addition, I disbanded the company’s divisional structure, streamlined the senior management and moved to a simplified organisation.

The fourth, commercialisation, was about strengthening our commercial capability by filling key management positions. Revenue, pricing and route management improvements were implemented and a number of marketing initiatives rolled out. Supplier negotiations delivered significant benefits. A route-profitability assessment and selection methodology was adopted. More than 100 new routes were assessed and 11 launched this summer, all of which traded ahead of expectations.

Confidence rebuilding was the final C. We engaged customers and listened to their needs; we engaged with unions, partners and ultimately, got investors behind our transformation programme.

Has confidence been restored?

The airline has returned to profitability. We’re carrying record numbers of passengers and delivering record load factors.

This indicates confidence has returned. We have much still to do, but we’ve come a long way. I’m encouraged that we can play a unique role in connecting regional communities and regional economies. The alternative to a 90-minute flight with Flybe is usually a car, ferry or rail journey that is at least three hours.

Flybe’s smaller aircraft enable it to fly from local airports and to operate low-volume routes that low-cost operators and larger airlines cannot serve profitably. On 80% of our routes this summer Flybe did not compete against another airline but against rail and roads. If Flybe didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent it. We have a unique purpose providing regional customers with a service that is a necessity rather than a luxury.

Our shareholders supported a significant capital raise in March, confirming investors feel confident in the business and in the plans to take it forward . We’re in the early stages of our journey. We ended last year only marginally above break-even. But the momentum is encouraging.

What lessons did you bring from easyJet?

One was the importance of structure and process and an analytical foundation for decision-making. I launched a war on ‘voodoo management’, where decision-making is based on bias, personal preference and supposition.

Another was the need to control costs. If you control costs, you can control your destiny.

You’ve said there was ‘an absence of a cost culture’. What impact might passengers notice?

The only impact customers should see is lower prices. Prior to restructuring we had priced ourselves well above the sweet spot for most of our customers in the regions. Our costs were too high and the business lacked a cost focus. We not only launched a cost-reduction programme, but adopted rigorous controls over spending decisions.

We’ve made sure our prices are attractive. It’s as simple as that. Our new London City prices start at £31.99.

We’re offering an alternative to people used to taking the train – or bus – so we have to ensure we are quicker, more convenient and an easier way to travel. We also have to offer a competitive price point.

We offer a 60/60 guarantee – if a flight is more than 60 minutes late due to an airline delay, you get a £60 credit to use in 60 days.

Are the job losses at an end?

Losing hardworking and loyal staff has been the hardest part. Sadly, we had no alternative. But times are changing and, while there is still a lot to do, the future is looking bright. In the past few months we’ve recruited 150 staff.

You’ve changed a fleet order, substituting turboprops for Embraer jets. Why?

We needed to resolve our fleet issues to implement our strategy. We reached an agreement with Republic Airways and Embraer to terminate an order for 20 Embraer jets.

Instead we’ll sublease 24 attractively-priced Bombardier Q400s from March 2015. This agreement is pivotal as it allows us to fly the right aircraft, on the right routes. Our partnership with Embraer remains important – our fleet includes 11 E175s.

The most visible change is the rebrand. Why did you switch to purple?

In the spring we reinvigorated the brand with a vibrant new look and enhanced our product offering. Purple is the core brand colour as we feel it reflects our determination to be modern, dynamic and fun.

It’s our way of saying we’re going to deliver an experience that is comfortable, efficient, distinctive and enjoyable. Our crews have modern, smart uniforms and our aircraft are being repainted purple.

It is not just a colour – it signifies a new way of doing business: professional, passionate, positive, people-focused and playful.

What’s the thinking behind the FlybeShuttle?

FlybeShuttle is a hop-on, hop-off multi-stop service – akin to a bus service in the sky but faster and attractively priced.

The key is to enhance the number of routes, connections and frequencies to poorly served regions. The first shuttle [launched this week] links Aberdeen, Leeds, Southampton and Jersey. Let me stress that each touchdown is very brief.

How important is the launch from London City?

Very important. London City is a major expansion for Flybe that will significantly boost connectivity. Six aircraft will be deployed and we’re expecting 500,000 passengers a year to travel on the routes.

It’s important to customers who are struggling to make commuting into London work, and important to residents of London, Exeter, Aberdeen, Inverness, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin. These are routes that many people travel daily or weekly.

You can fly from Exeter to London City in 70 minutes from £34.99. Compare that to a train journey of up to three and a half hours in crowded conditions. We take people to the heart of the financial district, not to a station far from it or to an airport in West Sussex, Hounslow or Bedfordshire.

Support from the business community has been very encouraging. The services will be significantly faster than travelling via Heathrow, Gatwick or Luton, or via road or rail. This is a major step in meeting Flybe’s strategic objective.

Can a regional carrier survive alongside easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways?

Our offer is completely different – our focus is on connecting the regions. We’re competitively priced, have the right frequencies and right aircraft.

The low-cost operators and BA typically don’t have the equipment or business model to serve regional routes profitably.
How do you see Flybe now?

It’s changing the way people think about commuting and travelling between the regions and that’s where we want to be. It’s a reborn company. Refreshed. Excited. Positive.


UK airports news

MODERN MARKETING
MEDIA BRAND OF THE YEAR
29 OCTOBER 2014 - 9:26AM | POSTED BY JOHN GLENDAY
Train operator calls in police after Flybe poaches rail travellers


A train operator has called in the police after over a marketing stunt by the budget airline Flybe, which saw it dispatch staff to Exeter station in a bid to tempt travellers from rail to air with free coffee and promotional flights.

Nonplussed First Great Western staff were furious after spying representatives of the budget airline exhorting people to switch its newly launched direct service between the historic city and the capital which has return flights for just £70.

A resulting altercation saw British Transport Police called in after rail workers complained that Flybe did not have permission to picket and were causing a disruption.

First Great Western previously enjoyed a monopoly on the London service which will now come under pressure from the above, with flights clocking in at over an hour quicker at just 80 minutes versus 159 minutes by train.

Flybe’s director of communications, Andrew McConnell, said: “It is regrettable that in a commercial free market, First Great Western felt it necessary to contact the police to try and protect themselves from Flybe’s offer of free coffee in a public space.

The drum.com

'Drunk' Flybe pilot arrested before flight

Oh dear !

30 October 2014 02:30 AM

The chief executive of Flybe, Saad Hammad, hasn't ruled out a future potential merger between the airline and Stobart's air division, which operates the Aer Lingus Regional service.

Europe's biggest regional airline, Flybe carries nearly 8 million passengers a year. Mr Hammad, a former chief commercial officer with EasyJet, was appointed Flybe boss last year.

He's navigating the carrier from a position where it was in danger of failing over a year ago to one where it has raised £150m (€190m) from investors, cut jobs, overhauled its structure, and is selectively expanding.

On Monday, it opened a new route between Dublin and London City Airport. British Airways has also launched a new service on the route this week.


"There will be consolidation in the industry for sure," said Mr Hammad in an interview in today's Irish Independent.

Asked if it would make sense at some stage for Stobart's air unit and Flybe to merge, he didn't rule it out.

"Possibly, we'll see. There will be some Darwinian process and there will be winners and there will be losers," he said.

Dublin-based Stobart Air was formerly known as Aer Arann. It has successfully built its business on the back of a franchise agreement with Aer Lingus.

This year, Stobart Air also started operating six services on behalf of Flybe from London Southend Airport.

Indo Business

How to turn around an ailing airline when you only have eight days of cash in the kitty

Flybe has just launched a new service between Dublin and London City Airport, going up against British Airways and CityJet as it seeks to grab a slice of the business

Published 30/10/2014 | 02:30

Saad Hammad is astounded at the state he found regional UK airline Flybe in when he took over as chief executive just over a year ago. "It was such a dysfunctional place," he says. "The level of dysfunction was huge. There was almost open warfare; people just weren't collaborating."

No wonder then that Flybe was close to a crash landing. The airline - Europe's largest regional carrier with nearly 100 aircraft at one stage - had been battered by the economic downturn, hit by airport passenger duty in the UK, and struggled to cope with high oil prices.

In the financial year to the end of March its losses spiralled to £41m (€52m) from £6m a year earlier. Profit warnings were the order of the day after an ill-timed stockmarket flotation in 2010.

Its shares, which debuted at £2.95 that December, were changing hands at 66p within less than a year. In the weeks before Hammad was appointed CEO in 2013, they were close to 40p.

Flybe's previous chief executive and chairman, Jim French (who had run the business for 12 years having joined its former incarnation as Jersey European Airways in 1990), had tried to stem the losses by initiating a cost-cutting programme that included axing nearly 600 jobs. Flybe also sold take-off and landing slots at Gatwick (effectively quitting its main London hub) and cancelled a multi-billion euro aircraft order with Brazilian maker Embraer.

That had helped to pilot the airline back on course to profitability (and Hammad is careful not to criticise French, who's credited with having grown Flybe into a significant regional force before it got into trouble), but it was still far from enough to ensure survival.

Hammad (52), a former chief commercial officer at EasyJet and ex non-executive director of Air Berlin, stepped in and took a butcher's knife to the rest of the business.

"We are shrinking to grow," he said as he announced further job losses and a reduction in both the number of aircraft and routes Flybe operated.

The airline's network includes routes to Dublin, Waterford and Knock from the UK. Last year, it carried 7.7 million passengers, up 6.9pc, as its turnaround plan gathered pace.

On Monday, it launched its new Dublin-London City Airport service, putting it in direct competition with a newly-launched service by British Airways, and the incumbent on the route, Dublin-based CityJet.

Flybe had become too complex, says Lebanon-born Hammad, who has been based in the UK since arriving there at the age of seven to go to boarding school. He studied at Oxford and the Sorbonne. He also previously worked with Procter & Gamble and Vision Express.

"It wasn't an integrated organisation," he says of Flybe. A list of the problems is enough to leave you breathless.

"There wasn't enough coherence, integration or teamwork. The costs were out of whack, you had surplus aircraft, the wrong aircraft, 40pc of routes didn't cover their fixed costs, and there was no commercial capability to speak of. We'd announce a new route before we'd even negotiated a rate with the airport."

Its pilots were flying less than half the number of hours as counterparts at EasyJet, underlining how underutilised its aircraft (and staff) were.

He shared the "financial facts of life" with staff and told them that they "had to work together".

"When you're running out of cash, that really helps to focus people's minds." At one stage in winter 2013, there was just eight days of cash left, he says.

Flybe was getting the rack rate of fees at airports, adds Hammad, who says the decision process about selecting new routes and destinations was more often than not based on "Voodoo" rather rigorous analysis.

"I went up to Edinburgh Airport not long ago and the director said I was the first ever senior person he'd seen from Flybe," he explains.

"People got carried away," he offers by way of explanation for what had gone on. "You have to stay disciplined. You have to stay humble. It's one of those sectors (aviation) that attracts larger than life people and historically it's been very glamorous and exciting. It still is very exciting but I can see why people lose sight of basic fundamentals."

He argues that short-sightedness isn't just peculiar to the aviation business.

"Entrepreneurial businesses can reach a level of complexity that sometimes outgrows the capability of the founding people."

Hammad left EasyJet after being headhunted to join private equity firm Gores Group in 2009, saying he was "pulled as much as pushed" in making his decision to leave the airline.

He was operating partner for Europe at Gores, handling restructuring projects. But almost five years later, he was back in the airline business.

"I was chatting to a friend of mine, who didn't have the brief, but he introduced me to Jim French and that's how it happened," he explains. "But when it came up I thought, oh my God, this is undercapitalised, has a balance sheet problem and a P&L problem, but I thought it was a powerful concept to connect regions."

"I did my research and I ended up - even though my wife says I've got a predilection for pain and punishment - taking it on. I've done a lot of this sort of stuff, I know what to do. It's like a higher purpose - you're part and parcel of the economic and social infrastructure of these communities. Half our passengers are business travellers. The beauty of Flybe is it's a do-good company."

Apart from doing a deal to cancel the aircraft orders, Hammad also said more staff would be made redundant (the eventual figure was fewer than anticipated). Earlier this year, £150m (€190m) was raised through an open share offer for what Hammad said was a "rebirth" of the carrier. About half was used to bolster its balance sheet, with the remainder earmarked for improved productivity.

A total of £47m of cost savings were pushed through last year, with another £24m due this year. "If you control you costs, you control your future. If you don't control your costs, you're always going to be a victim," says Hammad.

With the new route to London City Airport, Hammad is confident that Flybe can make a go of it despite the competition from British Airways (part of the IAG group) and CityJet. IAG chief executive Willie Walsh recently told the Irish Independent that he believed there's room for all three carriers on the route, but it's difficult to see all three making a comfortable living off what is a niche service.

Last year, London City Airport handled almost 3.4 million passengers and just 169,600 were flying from or to Dublin. That's about a tenth of the number that flew between Dublin and Heathrow, less than a fifth of the number that travelled between Dublin and Gatwick, and less than a quarter of the number that flew between Stansted and Dublin.

But Hammad is obviously enthused about his job of revitalising Flybe. What's more, he'll be paid well if he pulls it off.

He has negotiated a three-year deal that will see him earn a cash payout of the equivalent of between 3pc and 4pc of any increase in the company's market capitalisation, with no ceiling on what he can receive.

"It's about just rewards for the job at hand," says Hammad. "More importantly, it's a way of keeping score - the affirmation that we succeeded and delivered. If I don't deliver with my management team, I will not get rewarded."

Indo Business

Let the trend be your friend!