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No clear skies for Flybe

Flybe struggle to find growth as a result of rising fuel prices and a dip in business flights out to Europe.

In today’s interim report, the British airline blamed distortions from the Jubilee and Olympics for high trading expectations, and they remain cautious for the next year as they predict between 0 to 2% growth in the next 12 months.

The company have also struggled as a result of a ruling from the Office of Fair Trading which banned hidden charges for debit cards in July 2012 and called for transparency when it comes to these charges.

Despite Flybe’s concerns, they have reported a 20.4% surge of revenue to £193.2 million as the company branch out into Europe in a partnership with Finnair.

However, these revenues were hard hit by fuel prices which are expected to increase in the next year, and a 3% fall in customers to 1.9 million compared with last year.

Flybe have announced their plans to improve the company with a greater focus on cusotmer experience.

Changes that the flight provider hope to achieve include increasing the frequency of their flights and showing hidden charges for ‘extras’ such as hold baggage and choosing seats as part of their ‘Making flying better’ campaign.

The firm have also announced the opening up of new flight paths from the East Midlands to Amsterdan, Paris, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Jersey from September this year.

Flybe’s CEO and Chairman, Jim French CBE, commented: “After four years of consecutive decline, the UK domestic air market had shown signs of stabilising this year although June slipped back into 3% year on year decline.

“Whilst the UK to European leisure routes performed well in Q1, the UK to European business market has shown signs of weakness in recent months, leading to today’s revised trading outlook.

“Although we expect market conditions to remain challenging, we remain confident about Flybe’s long term future.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .