UK airline Flybe caught hiring actors to boost passenger loads

Many Americans don't realize it, but the Low Cost Carrier (LCC) situation in the UK is downright comical. It seems that every other week or so Ryanair is in the news for some stupid advertising campaign involving boobs, slimeball politicians or both. But competition is pretty tight in the LCC market, so they have to earn their stripes in some way, right?

This week, little known budget carrier flybe was caught attempting to hire actors and actresses to pose as passengers on their flights to fool authorities at Norwich Airport. Why would they do something crazy like this, you ask? Apparently the airline had a deal with the municipality to fly fifteen thousand passengers on the Norwich-Dublin route. If they didn't hit their numbers by March 31, the airport got to levy a $560,000 fine against the budget carrier

At just a few days out, they were still 172 passengers short, so they started placing ads for free round trip tickets for the weekend, posting ads on actors' websites and asking their employees to be ready to fly roundtrip over the weekend.

Norwich and the news agencies naturally caught wind and now the airport is pretty sour with flybe. Each party called the other greedy and environmentally unconscious, and now flybe is not invited over for tea this weekend.

Still, you have to admit that it's a pretty low stunt to pull if you're not going to make your numbers. Corporate greed, anyone?

Filed under: Airlines, News