Flybe pay people to fly from Norwich to Dublin

Flybe advertised for people to fly from Norwich to Dublin before the 31st March and said it would pay people £80 too!

The airline took this "bonkers" business move to avoid a penalty charge by Norwich Airport that it would be fined £280,000 by the airport if the airline did not fly over 15,000 passengers between Norwich and Dublin in 2007/2008 financial year.

In the last few days of March, the airline was 172 passengers short so it advertised initially on an actor's website. The wording of the advert was "You will be boarding an aircraft and flying to Dublin and then flying back into Norwich airport... There may be up to three flights during each day".

In the end, the airline didn't need the actors, it found the 172 passengers and met its target.

Environmental groups have heavily criticised the airline as pointlessly damaging the environment.

Norwich Airport said "It doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the agreement".

Flybe said that the airport was downright greedy especially as the two sides could not reach an agreement before the 31st March deadline. It said that it felt it had no option and would offset additional carbon emissions from the flights in question.

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