News: Major route shakeup as Flybe takes over BA Connect
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Flights > News > # 1206 (05/03/2007)
Flybe is closing 14 BA Connect routes as part of its takover of the struggling British Airways regional subsidiary.
Flybe will take over many BA Connect services, but a number of loss-making routes will be shut from Birmingham, Manchester and airports in Scotland.
On a more positive note though, Flybe will be launching 11 new routes and taking over 20 routes currently operated by BA Connect.
The expanded airline will operate 152 routes in total, flying from 22 UK and 34 European airports with new routes to key European centres including Paris, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Milan.
The acquisition does not include BA Connect's London City or Manchester-New York routes. BA will receive a 15% interest in Flybe as part of the deal.
A Flybe statement said: “BA Connect is a loss-making business. There has had to be some difficult decisions but Flybe will take over 20 of the routes currently operated by BA Connect and are introducing 11 new routes.”
The routes being cancelled are from Aberdeen to Manchester, Birmingham to Geneva, Lyon, Madrid and Berlin, Edinburgh to Hamburg, Manchester to Berlin, Lyon, Madrid and Vienna, as well as Bristol to Milan, Munich, Zurich.
Flybe will be creating 11 new routes from. These are from Manchester to Bergerac, Guernsey, La Rochelle and Limoges, Southampton to the Isle of Man, Frankfurt and Paris, London Gatwick to Bergerac, Cardiff to Paris, Edinburgh to Rennes and Norwich to Guernsey.
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At last, we have final clarification about how the newly reshaped Flybe will look, following British Airways' long anticipated retreat from the UK regions.
Many of the routes which Flybe are axing are already available from other airlines, but not always on a direct airport to airport basis. The most notable cuts are in flights from both Birmingham and Manchester to the European capitals of Madrid and Berlin.
Madrid
In the case of the Spanish capital Madrid, it looks like Flybe were not prepared to take on the no-frills competition, with both Easyjet and Ryanair now basing aircraft at Barajas airport. Although Easyjet's flights from Liverpool to Madrid are well established, the recent addition of Ryanair's cheap flights to Madrid from Nottingham East Midlands offers cutthroat competition to Flybe's operations at both Manchester and Birmingham. British Airways were always able to take advantage of their relationship with Iberia, who offer numerous onward connections, particularly to the Americas, from Madrid. Since adopting their low fares model, Flybe have always been much keener to see themselves as the point to point airline, rather than as a feeder to other airlines' long haul routes.
It might seem surprising that the Spanish capital should no longer have a direct link with either of Britain's two most important regional cities, but in terms of overall Spanish tourism, Madrid is still some way down the table. Flybe had already retracted all their previous Spanish routes from Birmingham, whereas BmiBaby will shortly be adding cheap flights to Barcelona from the Midlands hub. So could Baby make Madrid flights work from either Birmingham or Manchester? The challenge would appear to be as much down to competition at the other end as anything else - Ryanair or Easyjet could conceivably look at launching flights from Madrid to either Birmingham or Manchester. Both airlines' opinions on Birmingham and Manchester are well-known - in a nutshell, both airlines would love to get in, but neither airport has needed to make a sweet enough offer for either of them to set up a base. Our money would still be on BmiBaby as the most likely replacement for flights from both Birmingham and Manchester to Madrid, but if Flybe have decided that they don't think this route will be viable with any of their smaller regional jets, it would still be a substantial gamble for any of their rivals, all of whom operate much bigger aircraft, to step in.
Berlin
Manchester-based passengers still have the option of direct flights to Berlin with Jet2. Although Jet2 use the former East Berlin airport at Schonefeld, this facility is well-connected to the rest of the city by public transport, and does not suffer from anything like the same levels of congestion that Tegel airport suffers. BA Connect's flights from Birmingham to Berlin were a much more recent addition, with Ryanair also launching cheap flights to Berlin Schonefeld from East Midlands in the same season. Berlin might be a rapidly emerging destination, but Flybe have clearly recognised that the business value remains in more Western German cities such as Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich, as well as in cities like Hamburg and Hanover, where they have recently started routes from both Southampton and Birmingham.
As with Madrid, Flybe's decision will still have been down to airport politics as much as it will have been due to the viability or otherwise of Berlin as a destination and source of inward passengers. Again, both Easyjet and Ryanair have a significant no-frills presence at Schonefeld airport, whereas congested Tegel might have been too much of a gamble. The new Brandenburg International airport will eventually bring all of Berlin's flights together onto one site (adjacent to the current Schonefeld airport), but in the meantime, we don't really envisage Flybe wanting to throw themselves into this particular lion's den. The rumour mill tells us that BmiBaby had previously looked very closely at flights to Berlin Schonefeld from Birmingham, but if they haven't already taken this opportunity, how much likelihood is there that they will now do so, against such bargain basement competition from Ryanair, just up the road? Meanwhile, Air Berlin might already be an occasional sight at Birmingham, with regular charters to Paderborn, but we're not sure how closely they will have looked at flights from their Tegel hub to either Birmingham or Manchester.
Bristol
Poor Bristol now sees BA Connect's former routes dumped completely, leaving Easyjet with a virtual monopoly at this particular southwest hub. There is obvious logic to not wanting to compete against Easyjet on its high-density flights to cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow, where the Big Orange could easily up frequency and squash Flybe out entirely, but we think that it is less likely that Easyjet would want to step in and start flights from Bristol to either Zurich or Frankfurt. Easyjet's anger at Zurich's exorbitant handling charges is well known, whereas Frankfurt is almost as much of the no-frills no-go area at Heathrow. Air Berlin do at least have a reasonable presence at Frankfurt, but their route network from here is largely oriented around European leisure destinations. A business-dominated route like this really needs at least a daily frequency, making it a tall order for these flights to be viable in anything larger than a 100 seat regional jet. One possible scenario might be for Easyjet to launch Bristol to Cologne flights, which would enable passengers to make easy transfers by high-speed train to both Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. However, our money would be on BMI Regional stepping into set up a small base in Bristol, and cherry picking two or three routes it thinks it can make viable.
New routes
It looks like Flybe will deploy most other capacity freed up by axing British Airways' unprofitable routes on leisure services, rather than on flights aimed at the business community. However, we're sure that their new flights from Southampton to Paris will give Air France a good run for their money, and that the new link between Southampton and Frankfurt will prove to be particularly popular. Meanwhile, Flybe are continuing their slow creep into Cardiff airport, by bringing about the return of a much needed link with the French capital, Paris.
