Do not be fooled by FlyBe positioning themselves as a budget airline. They aren't cheap if you need to book seats less than a couple of weeks in advance, and the flights likely to be used for business trips are heavily penalised cost-wise.
I fly regularly to UK and EU destinations with FlyBe from Southampton. When it's fine, it's fine - which is all you can ask for from a 'budget airline'.
However, more than 50% of the 34 flights I've booked this year have been delayed by more than an hour, cancelled or, worst of all, diverted to Birmingham or Exeter because we've taken off so far behind schedule than Southampton Airport will be closed by the time we touch down.
Obviously, this usually happens on the return leg, which means I get to spend hours in a half closed airport with not a clue as to when I may get home. Any kind of disruption in the morning, at any airport, ripples though their schedules to the point of utter chaos by mid-afternoon.
And when things go wrong, you really see FlyBe's true colours. Zero communication. Zero explaination. Zero compensation.
Most of their fleet are Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 78 seater turboprop planes. These planes may kill less baby seals than an Airbus A320, but they're noisy, cramped and slow. These are the same model of plane, by the way, which SAS permanently grounded their entire fleet of, and returned them to the manufacturer after 3 seperate incidents of landing-gear collapse.
It was a sad day when BA ceased operating out of Sot'on. BMI from Heathrow now looks like the best option.
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Jul 21st, 2008
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