The chief executive of re-born airline Flybe says its new head office at Birmingham Airport offers "a real partnership" in the region but warned the carrier would start slowly as it looked to rebuild from the ashes of the defunct former operator.
David Pflieger has painted an upbeat picture of the new-look Flybe's future in the region but warned it must be conservative in its approach as the airline industry recovers from the "really horrific" impact of the covid pandemic.
His comments came as Flybe revealed earlier today that it was creating 200 jobs to be based at a new head office and operations centre within Diamond House next to the airport in Solihull.
The operator was placed into administration in March last year but assets such as brand and intellectual property were acquired for a nominal fee from administrator EY by Cyrus Capital. The private equity firm was a shareholder in the old Exeter-based airline alongside Virgin Atlantic and Stobart.
Mr Pflieger told BusinessLive: "We looked at three other cities for this but we chose Birmingham because we thought it was the best. The first reason was people - the catchment area, job pool and customer base.
"It is a central location in the heart of the UK with a great international airport hub which is important when you are a regional carrier and finally Birmingham Airport really rolled out the red carpet for us.
"We felt this was a real partnership which was key to us in terms of where we were going to locate ourselves.
"Birmingham was a key base for old Flybe in the past and it will be important to us going forward hence why we are here.
"Recruitment is going well. There are a lot of former Flybe staff and others in the industry who are looking for jobs and in fairness it is proving easier to bring people to Birmingham than it was to the prior HQ in Exeter."
Mr Pflieger originally hails from San Francisco but will be based full-time at the new Birmingham Airport HQ.
This is the eighth airline he has worked for, with his previous experience taking in both start-up operators and turnaround work for distressed businesses.
He described the 2021 version of Flybe as very much a start-up firm rather than a turnaround and said it was important to work slowly to ensure the company turned a profit.
"With a start-up company you get to start afresh and that's really what this is," he said.
"How do you ensure that you don't replicate Flybe of old and encounter problems? If you want to compete in the marketplace, you must have a low cost base.
"We need to start as a brand new airline, not a legacy brand which is mired in bureaucracy, silos and other challenges. If you're a start up, you can do that.
"That enables us to offer the low fares that the public wants to see. We were able to build up a business plan that started from scratch. All start ups begin slowly and build up to where they want to be in terms of profitability."
There are still many details yet to be announced such as routes, frequency and size of fleet but Mr Pflieger did confirm services would launch in the first quarter of 2022 and some of the routes would be ones not currently served out of Birmingham Airport.
The company's entire fleet will be the De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 turboprop powered aircraft that can complete short journeys almost as quickly as a regional jet but with lower CO2 emissions.
Prior to its collapse, Flybe was Europe's largest regional carrier and flew around eight million passengers a year and employed 2,500 staff.
Mr Pflieger concluded: "We are keeping the old name because it resonates with the marketplace and it's known.
"In terms of size, we will be smaller than the old Flybe. We want to be conservative in our approach because the pandemic has been really horrific for the industry.
"We want to be measured in our stair-step approach but rest assured we are planning to reach a decent size. This is a regional carrier but one thing I want to be clear about is that we are going to stick to our market.
"We are not going to pretend we are an ultra-low carrier or take on the big guys. Regional carriers do best when they work and partner with other airlines and also when they are flying to and from hub airports like Birmingham.
"We can bring people here where they can connect to go further afield. That will be our business plan. We are a regional airline, we are planning on doing that and doing it well."
