Flybe confirms deal to boost Dash 8 Q400 fleet and grows network

UK regional carrier Flybe had made a significant step towards resolving its legacy fleet commitments and securing the right aircraft for its future development with a set of linked agreements with US carrier Republic Airways Holdings and Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, which will see it drop the majority of its outstanding orders for the E175 in favour of leasing additional Dash 8-Q400 turboprops.

In July 2010, Flybe announced a $1.3 billion firm order with Embraer for thirty five Embraer E175 88-seat regional jets, with deliveries originally scheduled to complete by March 2017. To date, eleven of these aircraft have been delivered to Flybe and last year the deliveries of the remaining twenty four were rescheduled to a four-year period from October 2015. Flybe has now agreed to terminate the contract for twenty of this aircraft and defer delivery of the four remaining E175s until 2018, in line with Flybe current fleet planning needs.

This capacity will be filled with the arrival of twenty four 71-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft which will be sub-leased from Republic, with deliveries commencing in March 2015 and spread over a two year period. In a seperate transaction, but related indirectly to the deal, Republic has placed an order for 50 more E175s from Embraer.

The Q400 aircraft being sub-leased by Flybe have an average age of 5.4 years and will have an average sub-lease period of 4.6 years at March 2015. Their delivery schedule fits Flybe’s fleet replacement and growth profile as twenty one Bombardier Q400s from the existing Flybe fleet come to the end of their lease periods over the next four years.

Speaking at World Routes, an executive of the carrier told The HUB these agreements are in line with Flybe’s strategy announced after the strategic review last year of flying thin regional routes, unservable by mainstream airlines with larger aircraft and seat capacity. “We now have the right-sized aircraft to support our regional growth, ” he said. “We are committed to flying the right aircraft on the right routes.”

Flybe Grows its Network from Birmingham

Three brand new routes to Berlin Tegel, Hamburg and Olso are set to launch from Birmingham Airport next month with Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, as their 2014-15 winter schedule gets underway.

The five times weekly service to Berlin Tegel and daily services to Hamburg and Oslo will commence from Sunday 26th October through to Friday 27th March, cementing Flybe’s position as Birmingham Airport’s biggest carrier.

The daily services to Hamburg and Oslo are set to benefit business passengers due the frequency and convenience of the route, while Berlin Tegel, the German capital’s main international airport, is expected to be popular with travellers looking to book a short weekend break.

The launch of these new routes follows Flybe’s decision to also extend its services to Cologne, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Florence, Oporto and Reykjavik, which were introduced as part of its extensive summer 2014 schedule.

Speaking to The HUB at World Routes in Chicago yesterday, William Pearson, Birmingham Airport’s aviation development director, said: “The arrival of these new routes to Berlin, Hamburg and Olso, coupled with Flybe’s decision to continue services to six other destinations throughout the winter season is great news for the business community and also for holidaymakers in search of weekend breaks.”

“It is this level of connectivity to European destinations, including Flybe’s codeshare connections to long haul markets, which is seeing passenger numbers at Birmingham increase month-on-month. In August alone, we experienced the busiest month in our 75 year history, handling over 1.1 million passengers,” he continued.

“Flybe’s expansion of their route network further strengthens the airline’s commitment to Birmingham, which is now the airline’s biggest base. This year, we have seen Flybe add three new aircraft to its fleet, meaning there are now 12 here in total and we’re already looking forward to continued expansion in 2015,” he added.

In total, Flybe will operate up to 378 flights per week from Birmingham on 27 routes as part of its 2014-15 winter schedule.

ETN is a media partner with Routes. Routes is a member of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) .