I guess the question is whether the majority go flyBe’s network is viable, or if flyBe has such fundamental structural issues that it cannot be saved. flyBe has required £200 million from Connect and somewhere between 100 and 500 million from the government. If the network is not fundamentally viable then this is good money after bad, the Government needs to be honest with their intentions and nationalise it, or offer PSO funding on competitive tender terms. Simply propping up a chronically loss making airline is madness.
500 million is between 0.5 and 1% of the HS2 budget, for example, yet there will be zero return. How long until flyBe requires yet-more cash? If the UK feels the need for a chronically loss making national airline to connect the domestic market by air, that’s fine. But do the proper thing and call it that, take over the operating assets as the “operator of last resort”