The University of Glamorgan was the main sponsor of this week’s, 22nd February, Cardiff Business Club event.

Jim French, Chairman of airline Flybe was the guest speaker for the evening, which was an opportunity to promote the University’s Aircraft Maintenance Centre which will open on the Treforest campus this summer.

Flybe flies more than 120 flights each week out of Cardiff, more flights than any other airline, to six destinations, and won the Air Transport Award in 2009 as Regional Airline of the Year.

Flybe’s strategy was, Mr French said, clear and simple.“It is to become Europe’s largest and most profitable regional airline, serving domestic and European markets. It is also to have the lowest costs in its sector.

He added, “We have taken over numerous routes in recent years when others have failed to make these work. What’s the difference – the right sized aircraft, a good business model with fair value pricing, a strong customer service focus and a very strong retail- orientated brand and marketing.
“And this year we are looking to grow our Cardiff passenger base by 20% by adding frequencies to give depth to existing routes as opposed to adding more routes.”

Flybe was created in 2002 from British European and Jersey European and financed from shareholder borrowings totalling £22m.

“We had to change the business model and we did,” Mr French said.
“We looked at the market and decided that between the two extremes of British Airways or Air France at one end and Ryanair and easyJet at the other, we believed there was room for a new generation of airline – one that offered low fares (not necessarily as low as easyJet’s) but one that offered convenience by flying from local airports and concentrated on regular travellers.”

In 2002, Flybe predicted this new generation of airline would become the norm on short-haul European flights. It has.
“Our key markets are the UK domestic where we are now number one, as well as the UK-French regional market, where we fly more routes from the UK than any other airline. Our flight times are under one hour, our average aircraft size is 85-seats and more than 80% of our routes cross water. No journey time is less than 3.5 hours by car and more than 80% of our routes are high frequency, at least two per day with 50% more than four flights per day.”