Two of Britain's leading budget airlines are preparing to do battle at Cardiff Airport. Flybe, which claims to be Europe's biggest regional budget airline, has said that it will win the battle with bmibaby, which hots up this month.
On March 30 Flybe launches new routes from Cardiff, with a three flights a day service to Edinburgh, two to Glasgow and one to Newcastle. It already operates flights to Jersey and Belfast. Rival bmibaby already flies to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Jersey and Belfast, meaning the airlines will fight it out on a number of key routes from Cardiff.
Flybe’s chief commercial officer, Mike Rutter, said: 'It’s not sustainable for there to be two low-cost airlines on domestic (routes). Ultimately we will come out on top, it’s just a matter of time.’ He said in the long-term Flybe would focus on business routes and he expected bmibaby to concentrate on leisure weekends in European cities, rather than UK flights.
The airline is reported to planning flights from Cardiff to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Brussels, with an announcement expected in June. Mr Rutter even claimed that Flybe was trying to secure the Bay City Rollers for the March 30 launch - so ‘they can play Bye Bye Baby!’
But bmibaby managing director Crawford Rix said: 'Mike’s copying my network! There is a great future at Cardiff for us. We don’t all have to fly the same routes. There are plenty of opportunities out of Cardiff for us all. bmibaby is at Cardiff to stay and we are looking to add aircraft in the near future.’
Both airlines agreed on one thing - that passengers will be the winners as they tempt flyers with cheap seats, at least in the short term.
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