Weather disruption hits Flybe

The carrier, which joined the stock market in December, reported passenger numbers of 1.7 million in the three months to December 31, compared with 1.72 million a year earlier.

But it estimated passenger numbers would have been 4.8% higher with the weather effect stripped out.

A boost from additional charges and ticket sales growth helped revenues rise 1.5% in the quarter despite the disruption.

Exeter-based Flybe said January had got off to a good start against Britain’s big freeze seen a year earlier with the number of seats flown up 9% last month, or 2% with the weather effect stripped out.

Flybe, which has already revealed a £6 million hit from the December snow, said extra charges on top of standard ticket sales surged 11.2% to £22.8 million in the quarter.

The low cost airline industry is in the firing line after consumer group Which? lodged a super-complaint over charges relating to credit and debit cards.

It claims budget carriers are among the worst offenders for adding charges for card processing on to bills, with some charging a fee per passenger per leg of the journey, in spite of them having to process just one transaction.

Which? said it believed the actual cost to the retailer was no more than 20p for a debit card transaction or a percentage of a credit card transaction, thought to be no more than 2%.

Flybe’s passenger revenue per seat rose 4.1% in the third quarter and remained stable in January.

The group, which is Britain’s biggest domestic airline, floated in December to raise around £60 million for expansion plans.

Half of the proceeds will go towards a fleet of new aircraft and the remainder into supporting growth plans, such as codesharing agreements and potential takeovers.

Jim French, chairman and chief executive of Flybe, said plans for expansion into continental Europe were “progressing well”.

The Flybe brand is eight years old, but has traded under various names, starting out as Jersey European Airways in 1979.

It later became British European Airways as it expanded with the backing of Sir Jack Walker, the steel tycoon who owned Blackburn Rovers football club.

The Walker family trust own a stake of around 49% following the float, while British Airways has also retained its 15% stake.

Flybe said in response to today’s Which? claims that it “only maintains charges that are in line with the costs it bears” and would have to put up fares if these processing costs were reduced.

It said transactions with banks were “administratively complex” and required the group to employ a reasonably sized administration team.

“The credit card processing industry levies a number of costs upon companies like Flybe, which are reflected in the charge. They levy a processing charge per transaction and ask all airlines to maintain substantial cash reserves to cover their losses in case of claims against them, which we have to finance and is very significant in its scale,” it added.