Airline fills up its empty seats with staff

TODAY might be April Fool’s Day, but an airline really has been flying its staff to and from Dublin on empty flights in a row over €113,000.

British regional carrier Flybe has been shuttling staff from Norwich, in the east of England, to Dublin so it meets targets for carrying 15,000 passengers a year on the route.

Flybe’s contract with Norwich International Airport stipulates the airline must fly 15,000 passengers between the two cities every year.

Under the agreement, the airport has the right to withhold a £240,000 (€352,000) rebate if the airline fails to reach the passenger target.

On Saturday, panicking airline bosses at Flybe realised they were just 172 passengers short of the 15,000 they needed to get the rebate by yesterday’s deadline of March 31.

So they laid on extra weekend flights and persuaded off-duty staff to become passengers and fly to and from Dublin, helping the airline to hit the target and collect €352,000.

On Sunday one flight had just three passengers on a 74-seat aircraft.

Flybe bosses said they tried to cut a deal with Norwich International Airport when they discovered they were 172 short of the target but to no avail.

Yesterday, Flybe chief commercial officer Mike Rutter said the airline had offered to forego £50,000 (€63,000) of the rebate in acknowledgment of falling 172 short of the target.

“It might seem like April Fool’s Day but Norwich International Airport are not prepared to move on this,” he told RTÉ Radio.

“We’ve tried every single way during negotiations but all we have been met with is intransigence,” he said.

Norwich International Airport was prepared to give Flybe half the rebate, equal to £140,000 (€176,000), but the airline refused.

Flybe’s deal with Norwich International commits the airline to fly 70,000 passengers a year in and out of the airport, but over the past 12 months the airline has brought in €136,000.

“We’ve surpassed the target by 94% yet at the end of the day we’re having this ‘mewling’ going on about a small number of passengers,” said Mr Rutter.

But airport managing director Richard Jenner said the deal explicitly stated the airline had to fly 15,000 passengers in and out of Norwich on the Dublin route.

“If they had delivered 15,001 passengers we couldn’t say we’re not going to pay them — otherwise what’s the point of having an agreement?” he said.

“Flybe have cancelled flights between Christmas and March on this route because there was no market and then they suddenly think there’s a market for 11 flights in four days.”

Flybe declined to comment yesterday on whether it had reached the target.