Originally Posted by
Albert Hall
I notice that there's no mention of one very important element in any of the announcement - slots. As the business is being sold but not the legal entity, the Operating Licence and AOC will need to be obtained from scratch, so logically the same would apply on slots - unless anyone has any insight to the contrary?
Where in Flybe's main markets would slots be an issue? You don't have to buy slots, you simply apply for them if an aiport is slot-regulated and get them allocated. There is only a handful of airports in Europe where, contrary to that general rule, slot-trading takes place. I assume that LHR and LCY will not return as these airports were never their core business. Few of the other airports they served were slot-regulated or even (seriously) slot-constrained (DUS and AMS) and thus subject to slot-trading (which, on the continent, other than in the UK, is illegal anyway as there slots are seen as a common good rather than the property of an airline), but I assume they will stick to flying around the British Isles in the beginning. Even if they were interested in serving slot-constrained airports, COVID19 has taken care of that problem as for the foreseeable future there will be spare capacity at once busy airports.