INTERVIEW
By PAUL REVEL
Christine Ourmieres-Widener Flybe’s CEO talks aviation – from Concorde to NDC
Christine Ourmieres- Widener CEO, Flybe
n Before joining Flybe as CEO in January 2017, Ourmieres-Widener was chief global sales officer
for American Express GBT. n Until 2015, she was CEO at Cityjet, becoming the first female CEO of an
Irish-licensed carrier. n She has a Masters degree in Aeronautics from the Ecole Nationale Superieure of ENSMA, and an MBA from
Essec Business School. n Flybe operates 210 routes and flies from 33 UK airports
September 2017 show group revenue up more than 9 per cent year-on-year and revenue per seat up 8.8 per cent. And she’s even got a positive view of the 47 per cent plunge in profits – down to £8.4 million – because it’s in large part down to a one-off investment in a new digital platform. Ourmieres-Widener sees this as key to the carrier’s future. “We’re seeing some evolution and flexibility
C
in the distribution model,” she says, pointing out that early last year Flybe was one of the first airlines to implement IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard. “Our business travellers have high levels of expectation in operational excellence, and they want us to stay connected with them” – for example, she says, being able to deliver real-time updates on anything that could affect their journeys. “That’s why our biggest investment is in technology, and this is something growing year-on-year.” The technology investment involves migrating all systems to Amadeus’s Altea platform this year,
ALLING ME FROM FLYBE’S headquarters in Exeter, CEO Christine Ourmieres-Widener is upbeat talking about business. The results for the half-year to 30
She adds that Flybe’s stable financial situation
allows it to “face the headwinds because the airline industry has to show resilience; there’s always something happening!” She points out that Flybe operates 53 per cent of all flights within mainland Britain, and is the largest scheduled airline by movement at ten UK airports – this, she says, “gives us a sound business model”.
FEED THE WORLD Big players in the market, such as Ryanair and Easyjet, say feeding long-haul services is a big deal for them. I ask Ourmieres-Widener how important this strategy is for Flybe. She cites 11 codeshare agreements with major global carriers – plus, she says: “We launched another significant hub in March 2017 at Heathrow – the new services from Edinburgh and Aberdeen significantly increase our capacity to feed long- haul. But it’s not only Heathrow – at Manchester, Amsterdam and Birmingham we are feeding long-haul operations for many carriers, and we think this strategy is very successful.” Ourmieres-Widener studied aeronautics
before working as an engineer at Air France. “I had a background in mathematics and physics, so aeronautics was a natural evolution for
“It’s important to understand how each component is contributing to the success of a business”
including departure control. Ourmieres-Widener says on-time performance is a vital area for Flybe’s large regional network. “On more than 70 per cent of our network, our competitors are rail and road. So our differentiation should be through our reliability and on-time performance – we need to deliver this promise. And when you consider our average flight duration is 59 minutes, you realise how important it is for us to be on time.” Despite her upbeat tone, there’s no doubt
the European short-haul market is tough, with the bankruptcies of Alitalia, Air Berlin and Monarch making headlines in 2017. What’s next for European aviation? “It’s a very challenging market,” Ourmieres-Widener says. “Flybe is the largest regional carrier in the UK and Europe, so we have a scale impact on how we manage the business that some other players don’t have. In the market you have 55 per cent of capacity operated by five big groups, and the other 45 per cent operated by more than 100 AOC [air operator certificate] holders. So it’s still a very fragmented market; consolidation is definitely on its way.”
54 BBT January/February 2018
me,” she says. The Air France maintenance department was “an opportunity for me to realise how passionate I am about aviation. I worked on Concorde, a legendary aircraft, and the A320, which was then a new technology solution and cockpit configuration.” She then moved to the commercial side
and rose through the ranks at Air France, and later became CEO of Cityjet. “In each role I’ve experienced new things. I always learn something and I work with fantastic people. I think it’s important to have an opportunity to understand how each component is contributing to the success of a business. “But it’s still a very male-oriented industry,”
she adds. “So it’s even more important to perform and deliver. It’s complex and more regulated than other industries, and safety is always a top priority. It’s 24/7 – I’ve got used to never switching off my phone – but every day is a new day with something different, something
more difficult, something exciting.” n Read the full interview at
buyingbusinesstravel.com
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
