Flybe spat rumbles on
31.03.08
Regional budget airline Flybe, who advertised for actors to fly between Norwich Airport and Dublin to boost passenger numbers in order to avoid a £280,000 fine, may be penalised the airport has warned. The airport criticised Flybe's actions and said even if it meets the passenger target it may still face a charge, whist the airline said the airport is ‘intransigent and greedy’.
As previously reported, Flybe took a number of unusual steps - including advertising for actors and putting staff on standby to take flights, adding extra flights and offering seats to the public for free, in order to avoid a penalty from Norwich airport if it did not carry 15,000 passengers on the route by today (March 31).
Flybe said it had decided against using actors after placing the advertisement. But press reports suggest that one woman boarding a Flybe plane at Norwich this morning said she was a model and had been paid to fly to Dublin and back. Other passengers were seen landing at Norwich then almost immediately reboarding a Dublin-bound flight.
A Flybe spokesman has said the company regretted the ‘unusual’ move but the ‘ridiculous, intransigent and downright greedy attitude’ of Norwich Airport had left it with no option. He said that the airline would ‘offset’ additional carbon emissions and had not needed to use actors to fill seats.
Norwich Airport Managing director Richard Jenner said managers would speak to their Flybe counterparts. He added: ‘We will have to have discussions with them about whether or not some of the passengers are bona fide.’
Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth said Flybe's tactics were ‘madness’ and doing pointless damage to the atmosphere. The Green Party said Flybe was an ‘environmental vandal’ and air industry regulators should question whether the company was fit to operate.
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