Three More UK Bases For Flybe
By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent
Published: November 18 2004 17:51 | Last updated: November 18 2004 17:51
Article by the Financial Times Full Article
FlyBE, the UK regional low fares airline, is planning to expand its operations to three more east coast bases in the UK during the coming 18 months, as it expands its domestic network.
The airline said on Thursday that it had achieved a £17.1m turnaround in its first six months to the end of September from a pre-tax loss a year ago of £3.1m to a pre-tax profit of £14m.
Jim French, FlyBE managing director, said the group expected to follow the seasonal airline pattern of suffering a loss in the winter half-year, but he forecast “a solid operating profit” for the full year, the first operating profit for five years.
The airline is increasingly focusing its operations on domestic UK regional routes but largely avoiding the main London airports.
Mr French said that more than 80 per cent of its operations were domestic UK and Ireland routes with 10 per cent to the French regions and ten per cent to European sun and ski destinations.
It is expanding in north-west England with the start of operations for the first time from Liverpool John Lennon airport with services to Belfast City, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Jersey. It is planning to expand to a further four UK destinations from Liverpool as well as to the French regions.
It is also launching several new European routes from Birmingham International airport, one of its main UK hubs, with services from the end of March to Alicante Airport, Almeria, Malaga Airport, Murcia Airport, and Palma Airport in Spain and Faro in Portugal.
Mr French said the expansion of its UK west coast operations was 70 per cent completed, but the east coast was only 30 per cent developed.
FlyBE is hoping to bring three more regional commercial centres on the east coast into its operations. The primary candidates are understood to be Aberdeen, Norwich and Southend airports.
FlyBE, formerly known as British European and Jersey European, is the trading name of Walker Aviation. It is privately owned by Jersey-incorporated Rosedale (JW) Investments, one of the Walker family trusts and was originally established by the late Jack Walker, the former steel stockholding millionaire and owner of Blackburn Rovers.
The group is seeking to build a track record of sustainable profitability to support a possible initial public offering or a trade sale within the next two to five years.
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