Have Flybe missed an opportunity?
22 March 2022 Flybe have announced its first routes - 23 in total, operating from 16 airports including 12 in the United Kingdom. Belfast City and Birmingham are its initial bases and Belfast has over half of the routes served. However, is there a missed opportunity for Flybe? Based on the initial new routes, Flybe will face competition on 16 of the 23 routes including 11 out of 12 serving Belfast City. Of the 19 that are to operate year round, just 3 do not face any competition: Amsterdam - East Midlands Belfast City - East Midlands Leeds/Bradford - London Heathrow Here lies problem number 1 for Flybe - they are targeting routes already served. There is a benefit to this strategy, the market is known, customers are already flying the routes and Flybe can enter with attractive fares to shift consumers from one airline to another. Yet, serving routes with an existing carrier is unlikely to bring deals with airports for better fees. After all, why would airports subsidise a second carrie