Flybe Shuttle

Flybe have introduced what they claim is a “new approach to air travel” – stopping services with multiple stops en route to the final destination. They have given it the name Flybe Shuttle.

http://www.flybe.com/flybeshuttle/

10/10 for marketing, but this is surely not a new name (the BA Shuttle ran in the 1970s I believe) nor even a unique one today (BA call some of their current domestic routes Shuttle services). Nor is it a new idea – the US has many stopping services connecting multiple points.

In fact, is it any more than a slower way to travel? Who would want to take this when a direct flight existed between the two points of your journey?

I suspect Flybe just don’t have enough aircraft, crew or passengers to run eg Jersey to Leeds and Jersey to Aberdeen as separate flights

It’s not even sitting on the apron, as the small print suggests that if you are coming from Jersey you need to get off and clear customs at Southampton.

All credit to them for trying but I wonder how much demand there really is.

Channel Airways started a domestic shuttle service in the late 1960s.

It connected its home base of Southend with Aberdeen with six intermediate stops.

But the venture failed after a short while.

I’m sure bags will need to be removed as that is usually what clearing customs is about unfortunately.

I always thought the term shuttle meant “very regular, in fact so regular no published timetable was required”. Odd that Airlines use the term when it clearly is not a shuttle. Perhaps a case of Flybe and others advertising something that it is not…..one day a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority perhaps, and the airline having to change its marketing going by the recent direct flight decision.

As I recall in the US the NYC/Boston/Washington shuttle was such that if a flight was full they immediately put another one on. Will Flybe be doing likewise?

It is not a shuttle in the true meaning of the word, it is a marketing ploy to make it acceptable to get from A to D via B and C..

As much as I’m not a Flybe fan with their shoddy planes, unreliable time-keeping and bland crew, I am planning on using it to join a cruise in Southampton next year.
Fares are good – around £100 return including a bag- saves faffing with ABZ/LHR and coaches, or ABZ/LGW plus trains etc.
Air Anglia/Air UK also had the puddle-jumping flights on various routes ex ABZ including stops in EDI/NCL/MME/LBA/HUY – not all on one flight thankfully!
I personally hope this one is a success – there is competition ABZ/LBA and ABZ/SOU from Eastern Airways, but these Flybe fares are definitely more attractive than the Eastern ones.

It has just occurred to me – why are the Channel Islands not on CET?