Airlines
Flybe Says Stronger as Focused Regional Carrier
UK airline has refocused under new French leader and is confident of market position as regional connector.
Flybe has decided to focus its fleet on the Q400 and Embraer 175, and is slowly removing the Embraer 195s.
Flybe has decided to focus its fleet on the Q400 and Embraer 175, and is slowly removing the Embraer 195s.

The UK's Flybe has turned its sights to reinforcing its marketing identity since Christine Ourmieres-Widener became CEO in January 2017. “Frankly Flybe has struggled with its identity in recent years and I’m not convinced it thought it was low-cost or something else,” she told the Aviation Club of the UK on June 7. The airline depicted itself as a new low-cost carrier when it became Flybe in 2003. It acquired BA Connect in 2006 and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2010, but since then it has struggled to stabilize its market position against the ever-growing presence of LCCs such as EasyJet and Ryanair. “Did the plan succeed?” asked Ourmieres-Widener. “Not really; the seat-mile cost of regional aircraft could no beat narrowbodies.”