Case Histories › Flybe

Airline relies on cost-effective e-mail to mobile phones across Europe

In a highly-competitive market sector, Flybe one of Europe's leading low fare airlines, flies five and a half million passengers a year on 108 routes to 40 airports across seven countries.
Autopage plays a vital role in helping it maintain good communications between its UK regional bases at Birmingham, Belfast, Jersey, Guernsey, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton, Exeter and Norwich, and ticket desks all over Europe.

Problem

Operations and Systems Development Manager Nathan Burden, based at Flybe's headquarters in Exeter, says: "We have a lot of remote workers at out stations who are not deskbound and we potentially need to get messages to up to 200 senior staff, middle management and directors. These range from regional managers, heads of flight and cabin crews, to the Managing Director."
Prior to installing Autopage for Windows five years ago, various methods of communication were used, including the industry's standard SITA messaging system, mobiles, faxes and post.

Solution

Now, Autopage is used for all messaging, both to groups or individuals. Logistics Duty Manager Tim Hill says: "Every morning we send an ops report via Autopage giving staff the stats for on-time and delayed performance from the previous day and the reasons for that, as well as what is happening with the first wave of flights that morning. As we can exceed the normal 160 character limit for SMS, we can now give chapter and verse."

Details such as 'Jersey is fogbound', can be instantly relayed, while Flybe's PR company also get the daily messages in order to give up-to-the-minute information to press or public enquiries.
The Autopage system is also used for urgent messaging to the company's Incident Control Centre and a call list of 40 to 50 people who need to be informed immediately of serious flight or airport incidents.

"The system is very good," says Nathan Burden. "We've had no issues with it technically. It always works. We have 100 per cent up-time. It does everything that it claims to do.
"The staff like it. It goes straight to their mobile phones and they don't have to answer it. It's cost-effective and we have always found Autopage to be very pro-active in dealing with any queries."