Sadly I have to agree with Cabsav, and I used to work for them. Covid19 aside there was never going to be any serious bids to buy the whole thing otherwise it would have happened in early 2019, if not before. All that was going to happen was some “chancer” was going to come along and cherry pick the best bits, if there ever were any. Why? Because Flybe had too much baggage and the only way to get a good regional airline doing what it did best, ie, competent people taking people from A to B safely and efficiently, was to let it die and start again. Anybody with an ounce of sense could see that but everyone buried their heads in the sand and thought it was too special to let go under.
When JF, AS and JR got into bed with BA and took on BA connect, the writing was on the wall. They thought they’d made the big time and from then on acted as such. They haemorrhaged cash and very soon couldn’t see a way out of it. The rest is history.
It’s a crying shame, but as in all these cases, the people that do all the hard work get “shafted” and the incompetent managers move sideways into another high paying job. There is a need for something like Flybe and I certainly don’t think Eastern or Loganair can fill the void. But someone will. Let’s just hope that whoever does focuses on providing the service people want and not trying to be something that regional airlines can never be.