Don’t think they have yet reached the minimum operating time
And therein lies the answer to all of this.
The slots become theirs in just a few weeks - the end of this March. These are worth such a vast amount of money that I believe VS/DL will do anything to keep FlyBe going until that happens. All the stuff about APD and loans etc is just an attempt to find a way forward without using the investors own money. Would you stump up millions if you thought you could get the UK Gov to do it for you?
Flybe will be kept alive upto the 29th of March - what happens then is not guaranteed...