Flybe’s 146 fleet is being withdrawn. (0606448)

FLYBE will reduce its daily passenger capacity to Gatwick in January by more than anticipated.
The airline announced in July it would be withdrawing its BAe 146 jet from the route at the end of October and replacing it with the smaller Dash Q400, with 34 fewer seats.
To offset the lower capacity, Flybe said it would do five return trips a day in the winter and six in the summer.
However, its website now offers those five flights on only 13 days in January. On other days that drops to three or four flights.
Flybe general manager for market development Ian Taylor said the airline had planned carefully.
‘There is no hidden agenda. It is the same as we have done every year for the winter,’ he said.
‘There is quite a bit of seasonal demand in Guernsey for services and when we are operating in the days of January and February, there are times when there is not the demand for five flights.
‘We have gone on historical data and worked out the demand.
‘It happened last year and happened the year before.’
The 146, which has 112 seats, currently operates four times a day to Gatwick, but is being retired.