In its latest attempt to target business travellers, the airline has eliminated the need to make two separate bookings on its website and now permits passengers travelling on a connecting flight to have baggage checked through to the final destination.
Connecting flights are still being loaded onto Flybe”s system, but it claims 117 possible permutations, including international destinations. However, some of the connections include long layovers that may not be attractive to passengers and travellers will still have to go back through the security channel when they change aircraft.
A Flybe spokesman claimed having to pass through security twice was not a big issue at regional airports.
”At most of our small regional airports, it”s not the same as you would experience at Heathrow,” he said.
Through-ticketing will particularly benefit Flybe”s franchise deal with Scotland”s Loganair. Loganair, currently a British Airways franchise, takes on the Flybe colours on October 26 when BA ends its current contract. Loganair flies 26 routes from 16 airports, most of them connecting through Edinburgh and Glasgow. Through-ticketing will allow Flybe to offer itineraries such as Kirkwall to Norwich via Edinburgh and Guernsey to Aberdeen via Birmingham on its website.
”Having Loganair made it sensible to introduce this now,” said the spokesman. ”We now offer an awful lot more connectivity than BA ever did.”
The latest innovation is part of Flybe”s efforts to target the business traveller, who make up 20% of its passengers. The decision to offer through-ticketing, which is branded by the airline as Flybe Connections, bucks the no-frills trend and brings Flybe further in line with full-service rivals. It follows Flybe”s decision to sell on all four GDSs - the only no-frills carrier to do so.
Apart from the Loganair routes, Flybe”s latest winter schedule contains no other new destinations. However, it claims that its winter domestic passenger numbers, 1.8 million, are already twice those of easyJet”s.
Gary Noakes