Scotland still vital to us, says new boss of Flybe
Christine Ourmieres-Widener pledges investment in Scotland
THE new chief executive of Flybe has signalled the airline’s commitment to continue serving communities around Scotland after its franchise deal with Loganair expires later this year.
Aviation veteran Christine Ourmieres-Widener, who joined Exeter-based Flybe in January, said it was working on new arrangements to serve the Highlands, Islands and other destinations around Scotland from September.
Ms Ourmieres-Widener, a former chief executive of Dublinbased CityJet, said the airline was “very proud to be a player in the Scottish market”, noting that its commitment to Scotland is evidenced by the addition of new routes to Heathrow from Aberdeen and Edinburgh launching later this month. The 40 scheduled flights are in addition to the daily services it runs to London City from the Scottish airports.
Asked to comment on how Flybe intends to run its internal routes in Scotland after the long-standing Loganair franchise ends in August, Ms Ourmieres-Widener said: “We are really investing in Scotland. The partnership with Loganair is still really important to us and we are working on what will be the new arrangements we put in place from September. We really value this partnership. The team are still working on it.”
Ms Ourmieres-Widener, who was formerly chief global sales officer with American Express, added: “Our commitment is really to connect regions. We are very proud to be a player in the Scottish market. It is a commitment we are increasing with the launch of a Heathrow route at the end of the month.”
Ms Ourmieres-Widener, who has worked in aviation and travel for 25 years, admitted her return to the regional airline sector comes at a challenging time.
Flybe cited the effect of the weak pound on its dollar denominated loans in November as it reported a 15.9 per cent fall in first half profits to £7 million. However, the maintenance services it provides to other airlines has benefited from the fall in sterling since the Brexit vote because it has become more competitive.
Ms Ourmieres-Widener said it was ultimately “too early to comment” on the impact Brexit will have on Flybe. Unlike peers such as easyjet, she noted, Flybe was “not looking at buying an AOC (Air Operator’s Certificate)” to allow it to fly across Europe should the UK lose access to the European aviation market.
“Our main focus remains much more on the UK,” she said. “Eightfive per cent of our bookings, our reservations are coming from the UK market. The exposure is a little bit different.”
Flybe has had to address the challenge brought by its fleet being “a little bit too big compared with the potential of the airline”, added Ms Ourmieres-Widener, who said Flybe was changing to become a “more customer focused and demand driven airline”.
She explained its focus is now on “flying routes that are really contributing to the performance of the company and also being closer to our customers. We are, for instance, working on IT initiatives to improve the customer experience along the process.”
Ms Ourmieres-Widener added: “We have a different mix of revenue compared to our main competitors on the market.”
Meanwhile, the executive described as “very important” the forthcoming changes to Air Passenger Duty, which is set to be cut in Scotland under devolved powers from April 2018, stating it will be good for the economy and the airline industry. But she urged the Scottish Government to maintain two bands of the taxation so the rate applied to short-haul flights is lower than for long-haul routes. “At the end of the day, people want to go and meet their families and they also want, for business, to connect with their teams in the UK,” Ms Ourmieres-Widener said. “That is something that could be even easier in future if the financial burden was not at the same level. There are significantly more shorthaul business and tourist flights leaving Scotland than long-haul, and we think that is quite important.”