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Feature: Master class in consolidation
09 March 2010
Exeter-based airline, Flybe, knows how to be profitable even in the tough times. David Attenburrow, director of Flybe's fleet planning, tells JoAnn DeLuna why the airline is so successful.
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Flybe
Exeter
David Attenburrow
Bombardier
Q400
ERJ 145
BA Connect
“When we bought our first [Bombardier] Q400 at the beginning of 2001, people thought we were daft," says David Attenburrow, director of fleet planning, Flybe. "We'd go to conferences and people thought we were silly.
“Jim [French, chief executive officer, Flybe] and I felt like we had to wear dunce hats and stand in the corner," he adds.
But they knew what they were doing. Flybe aimed to complement their regional and domestic routes with turboprops. Since then the company has not only grown to become the largest independent regional airline in Europe, but also the largest domestic airline in the UK, overtaking easyJet in May 2009.
The airline has also survived some of the most challenging economic events the aviation industry has experienced, including the terrorist attacks on the US in 2001 and severe acute respiratory syndrome between 2002 and 2003 and, most recently, a global...
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