beermat wrote:

yep that's the one!!looking forward to a plane with real engines

They are actually powered by jet engines! They are smaller turbines, and rather than the thrust produced pushing the aircraft along, the engine drives a gearbox and propellor, hence it's a turbo-prop.

Darren

the length of the flight i could have been near to spain than southampton!! 1 hour and 20 minutes it took. quite some time

iv always fancied a ride in a DHD8 although a little slower than a turbo jet they are better on fuel ecconomy..and i have that funny feeling when there isn't any props that something is missing...
but they dont fly from my local airports

Have flown with FlyBe on a Dash 8 a couple of times and found them to be fine. Just make sure you keep within your baggage allowance though. Coming back from Southampton they said our cases were 20kgs over, but as we only had 10kgs hand baggage they let us off with 10kgs. They now charge £9/kg!
Have invested in some luggage scales to prevent the same thing happening next month.

luci

I use Flybe every week and find it amazing the number of people who are uneasy about flying on their prop jobs. The Q400's are fine apart from the hard landings - seats near the front or the back being best for a good view. As for the jets I love the Embrear's - proper little pocket rockets and the 195 is a really comfy plane for a short hop. However don't like the ATR 72's...even though they remind of my flights with Bangkok Airways.

Flybe unveils record profit

UK regional airline Flybe achieved a record pre-tax profit of £35.4 million in the year to March 31, up by £20 million on the previous year.

Sales for the year rose by 46% to 535.9 million as the carrier flew seven million passengers.

Flybe's fuel bill, at less than a quarter of total costs, is claimed to be one of the lowest percentage levels in the industry.

The airline claimed to be bucking the economic uncertainty in the avaiation industry by recording pre-tax profits of £12.2 million for the first quarter of its financial year, an increase of 14%, as well as an 18% increase in passengers.

Chairman and CEO Jim French described the year as "transformational" as it integrated and realised the benefits of the acquisition of BA Connect.

"With current fuel costs at 24% of total costs, Flybe's fuel costs represent one of the lowest percentage burdens in the industry. With one of the most fuel-efficient fleets and a passenger base that is less dependent upon discretionary leisure spend, Flybe is continuing to perform strongly in the current difficult environment.

"In the first quarter's trading of this year, both revenues and operating profits were significantly higher than in the same period last year.

"The combination of our long-term strategy, focussed management actions and strong cash position gives us a major opportunity to maximise the opportunities that will surely come as the industry enters a period of consolidation."

With permission from Travelmole

ive never used flybe before so not sure how their booking system works, i'd priced up flights for 2 adults and 1 child to paris got a reasonable price , then mentioned to my son we were thinking about going to disneyland paris,he has now decided that he and his girlfriend want to join us, so i went to book flights but as soon as i put in 5 seats the price jumps up around £30 pp, 4 tickets stays at cheaper price, ive tried ringing them but their phones have a fault. does anyone know if i book say 4 tickets at cheaper price then 1 later whether i will get them all at cheaper price or 1 at higher and how much higher would last ticket go grr, trying to work out which way would be the cheapest option to book altogether or separately. has anyone had this happen before, never come across this before thanks

karen

ellie_meg,

It's often the case that if you try and block book several seats, the price increases. It's generally because there are only so many seats available in a particular price band. If there aren't enough seats at the lower price band, they'll be put in the higher band. There's no problem in booking say 3 at the lower band, then 2 at the higher, or whatver works out cheaper. It just means you'll be on seperate bookings.

Darren

Flybe unveils new Jersey routes for summer 2009

Flybe has introduced new routes to Jersey as part of its 2009 summer schedule, now on sale.

New routes to Jersey will operate from Inverness, Dundee and Manston in Kent.

Flybe is also increasing frequency from Birmingham, Doncaster/Sheffield, Cardiff, Exeter and Newcastle.

Other key routes for summer '09 include:
"¢ Exeter to Avignon, Brest, Nice and Rennes
"¢ Southampton to Bergerac, Brest, La Rochelle, Nice and Perpignan
"¢ Birmingham to Brest, Bergerac, La Rochelle and Toulouse
"¢ Jersey to Belfast, Doncaster, Glasgow, Inverness, Nice, Southend, Dundee and Manston in Kent.

"Flybe continues to grow strongly despite tough economic conditions as we attract passengers from high-price, full service airlines and no-service, low cost airlines," said chief commercial officer Mike Rutter.

With permission from Travelmole

Hi Darren,
Just so I can keep a check on flights from Exeter/Manchester Flight BE376 where does the flight arrive from before our departure and also the same question for our return journey Manchester/Exeter Flight BE372 where does that flight arrive from.

Many thanks for your help.

Angie34,

That's not an easy one because Flybe have a huge route network!! I haven't time to look now, off to work but I'll try and dig the infomation out when I get back later. Got my yellow fever injection this afternoon so should have plenty of time after that!

EDIT:
BE376 is the return flight from Manchester, ie MAN-EXT-MAN (BE375/6).
BE372 should be the first flight of the day

Just so you know, some flights are now being operated by thenew Embraer 190's at peak times, eg BE372 on a monday.

Darren

Many thanks once again Darren.

Angie.

I think Flybe have changed their prices for excess baggage (hold baggage) over the past couple of days. Now charging £10 per kilo for the first 3kgs, £15 per kilo between 4 and 6 kilos and then £20 ker kilo for anything above 6kilos. Still get the 20kgs hold baggage for economy passengers and 30kgs for economy plus passengers.

Yet again at Southampton both our hold and hand luggage were weighed and we were just under with both. Those scales were a Godsend!

luci

we are going to paris tomorrow with flybe who ive never used before, ive received 2 emails this morning, 1 wont open the link up the other is telling me to print out boarding passes, odd , never had to do that before , if not theres a £10 pp charge, but these are only available for the outgoing trip, so what happens on return, does this email suddenly allow access and how are you supposed to print them out when your on holiday, grr am i missing something here or do they really expect you to get these printed when youre away ,which seems very unfair. or should this other email allow me to follow the link, im a little confused by this as ive never used them before, nor had to print out my own boarding passes, as theres 6 of us we dont want to have to pay £60 extra for return we go stung with cc charges and luggage using this co grr, anyone used this company and know what the proceedure is thanks

Hi I have flown with Ryanair and they have a on-line check in system,too.You can check in several days before departure,both ways.It depends on their terms and conditions,I only use them to visit my daughter who lives in Cornwall so only go for 3 or 4 days.I don't think you can check in hold luggage but somebody who knows more than me can probably help more,hope you enjoy your trip,T.

this is check in for all types of luggage, we are going to disneyland for 3 nights so you would have thought we could have printed out return passes too, the only good thing is i didnt pay for reserved seats and at least we have now got allocated seats together lol

Have you sorted it now? I only take hand luggage which makes it easier.When we go to Spain for our friends' anniversary we've paid for one piece of hold baggage so it will be fun trying to sort that out,we've bought 2 seperate flights,one with hold luggage and one without.T.

no the link still wont open grr

ive got the outgoing passes printed but not the return

just tried to ring them and what a surprise put on hold for ages til i gave up , really not happy about this, some of these companies seem to charge for every dam thing