Skift Take
Flybe's management team will be hoping the airline's latest turnaround strategy works, where others have failed. The carrier has plenty of challenges and is operating in a very tough environment. Might it find things easier as part of a bigger aviation group?
Flying the right planes for your particular route network is one of the basic rules of running an airline.
It’s not always easy. Buying, selling and leasing aircraft is an expensive business. A change in circumstance can therefore prove costly.
UK regional airline Flybe has been trying to get rid of its Embraer E195 aircraft for almost five years. The jets are too big and costly. Flybe prefers the smaller Bombardier Q400 turboprop, which will “remain as the backbone” of its fleet “for the foreseeable future”.
The problem for Flybe is the larger aircraft are still hurting the company’s finances. It has restated its 2017 results, adding a write-down of some $37.7 million (£28.6 million) to reflect lease and impairment provisions.
The situation has gotten better this year with the E195s only adding an extra cost of $1.7 million (£1.3 million) to the bottom line and the airline is clearly trying to draw a line under the situation.
“Under the previous management there was a much more ambitious approach to growth. When they put those orders in some years back for a large number of Q400s and a large number of Embraers… the current management inherited that. And I guess with lock ins and conditions of some of the leases they p
