Flybe takes £6m hit from bad weather

FLYBE, Europe’s largest regional airline, suffered a £6m hit from last month’s ice and snow as the bad weather disrupted services throughout the UK.

The airline, the largest in terms of traffic movement at both Birmingham International Airport and Manchester Airport, said some airports were closed for around 30% of December, resulting in the loss of nearly 2,000 flights.

In a statement, the airline said: “The widely reported weather conditions across a major part of the UK’s regions, which continued through to the end of December, resulted in prolonged disruption to a significant proportion of Flybe’s network.  
 
“Some airports were either closed or seriously restricted for up to 30% of the time available, with Scotland, Northern Ireland and the South Coast of England being particularly badly affected.”  

It said as a result, around 1,980 of Flybe’s flights were cancelled – 16% of the month’s planned flying programme and a reduction of 6% over the previous year. As a consequence,  passenger numbers were down 16% on volumes predicted for the period.
 
“Following a detailed assessment, the one-off financial impact of the disruption is estimated at some £6m (comprising loss of revenue on cancelled flights, delay and diversion costs and additional de-icing costs, offset by savings in variable costs on cancelled flights),” said the statement.  
 
Excluding the bad weather, the airline – which is planning a major flotation – said its underlying performance was in line with the board’s expectations and that market conditions remained positive.