Airline competition awards free return flights

[March 20th 2008]

Regional airline Flybe has rewarded Scottish namesakes with free return flights in its latest competition.

Flybe launched a search to find the Scottish namesakes to commemorate its first ever branded flight from Glasgow with its franchise partner Loganair.

Flybe-branded aircraft fly from Glasgow airport to eight destinations around Scotland – Benbecula, Kirkwall, Sumburgh, Stornaway, Barra, Tiree, Islay and Campbeltown.

In its competition the airline wanted to find anyone with the same name, or a creative derivation, as these destinations. Flybe was delighted to be contacted by the real Kirk Wall, from Hampshire.

Also found in the namesakes search were Tiree (Rodden from Inverness), Islay (McVean from Dunbartonshire) and a certain Sam Burrows (Sumburgh) from Northamptonshire.

Ben Becula proved rather harder to come by, until Flybe was contacted by Donald Morrison from County Durham whose widely used Internet forum name is Ben Becula. Donald has strong ancestral links with Benbecula and he and his wife visit the Western Isles on a regular basis.

“We thought our search for these namesakes would be a bit of a tall order but we were bowled over with the phenomenal interest shown in the competition and we thank all those who entered,” says Flybe chief commercial officer, Mike Rutter.

All of the namesake winners won two free return flights with Flybe anywhere on its extensive expanded network.

Flybe’s agreement with new franchise partner, Loganair, started on October 26th at the start of the 2008/09 winter schedule. This is the first deal of its kind for a UK based low cost airline.

Flybe claims to be Europe's largest and most successful regional airline with over 190 routes serving 13 countries. The airline operates from 36 UK airports and 30 other European airports and says it offers five times more domestic routes in the UK than any other airline.

At Birmingham, Exeter, Manchester, Southampton, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Belfast City airports Flybe is the largest scheduled airline.

Written by: Nick Purdom

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