Flybe to stop Frankfurt flights
Budget regional airline Flybe has confirmed that it will no longer offer flights to Frankfurt from mid-September. The airline has already curtailed flights from Birmingham and Manchester to Frankfurt, with Southampton airport being the only one of its bases to keep a link to the German financial hub.
However, Flybe will continue to provide feeder flights into two of Europe's other major hubs -- Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol. Charles De Gaulle Airport is the main hub for Air France, with whom Flybe have a code sharing arrangement, whereas Amsterdam is home to KLM, who are part of the same airline group as Air France.
Flybe offer flights to Amsterdam from Exeter and Inverness as well as Southampton. Flybe's non-stop flights to Paris are available from Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter and Manchester. However, Flybe's flights to Paris from Southampton operate to Orly Airport instead, taking passengers that little bit closer to the centre of Paris, but offering little by way of useful onward connections.
As is typical when airlines withdraw routes, Flybe have made no comment about the reasons why they are pulling out of Frankfurt, although insufficient demand to make the route viable would be the usual and obvious reason.
Although the trend in recent years has been very much towards low-cost airlines, business passengers tend to prefer the traditional network airlines, as long as their timings are more suitable.
Faced with competition from Lufthansa on flights from Manchester and Birmingham to Frankfurt, Flybe are not just up against an airline perceived as being more business friendly and reliable, but they are also merely providing a point to point service.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa offer connections throughout the world via Frankfurt. Southampton airport is always a curious case when it comes to business focussed routes - Flybe might not have anyone to compete with directly on most of their Southampton routes, but they can pick up a lot of traffic heading either down the M3 corridor or by train from London.
With Lufthansa now offering flights from Gatwick to Frankfurt in addition to their well-established Heathrow and London City routes, they are always going to have the upper hand with most business travellers as well as with anyone making onward connections.
If there is any consolation, it is that at least this route has outlasted Ryanair's flights from Bournemouth to Frankfurt Hahn, although as Hahn is as close to Luxembourg as it is to central Frankfurt, we doubt that many business travellers used it much.
However, Flybe will continue to provide feeder flights into two of Europe's other major hubs -- Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol. Charles De Gaulle Airport is the main hub for Air France, with whom Flybe have a code sharing arrangement, whereas Amsterdam is home to KLM, who are part of the same airline group as Air France.
Flybe offer flights to Amsterdam from Exeter and Inverness as well as Southampton. Flybe's non-stop flights to Paris are available from Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter and Manchester. However, Flybe's flights to Paris from Southampton operate to Orly Airport instead, taking passengers that little bit closer to the centre of Paris, but offering little by way of useful onward connections.
As is typical when airlines withdraw routes, Flybe have made no comment about the reasons why they are pulling out of Frankfurt, although insufficient demand to make the route viable would be the usual and obvious reason.
Although the trend in recent years has been very much towards low-cost airlines, business passengers tend to prefer the traditional network airlines, as long as their timings are more suitable.
Faced with competition from Lufthansa on flights from Manchester and Birmingham to Frankfurt, Flybe are not just up against an airline perceived as being more business friendly and reliable, but they are also merely providing a point to point service.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa offer connections throughout the world via Frankfurt. Southampton airport is always a curious case when it comes to business focussed routes - Flybe might not have anyone to compete with directly on most of their Southampton routes, but they can pick up a lot of traffic heading either down the M3 corridor or by train from London.
With Lufthansa now offering flights from Gatwick to Frankfurt in addition to their well-established Heathrow and London City routes, they are always going to have the upper hand with most business travellers as well as with anyone making onward connections.
If there is any consolation, it is that at least this route has outlasted Ryanair's flights from Bournemouth to Frankfurt Hahn, although as Hahn is as close to Luxembourg as it is to central Frankfurt, we doubt that many business travellers used it much.
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