You could be right Buster but as you say, Loganair and Eastern are not going to be filling all the gaps and many of those people who had the cash were perhaps renewing their ratings just to keep their licences going as it was cheaper to do it on a sim on a familiar rating than to use a twin. In some cases, the Job Centre paid. I think most people were aware of the possibility of what might happen regarding venture capitalists but I think it will be worth waiting to see what EY have to say in their next report due early May. In the meantime, licences have to be kept refreshed and ticking over.
They (EY) appear to have been holding onto a lot of staff to keep a credible licence holding operation going. Were these people transferred across into Thyme when they supposedly took on the business or are they still employed by Flybe (EY) and were just working in parallel with Thyme? Did thyme ever complete the deal to buy or were there strings attached to ensure that it only completed when the slots had been secured (the whole portfolio not just LHR)? What is going to happen to these retained staff now? What will happen to Thyme with its one remaining director? What will happen to Connect Airways? The CA board seems to still exist and strangely it is still owned by Virgin and Stobart (with EY in control) and yet Virgin appears to still owe Flybe £10m. Still lots of unanswered questions but there must be quite a few retained staff who are in the know and are either waiting to move onto develop plan f,g,h...k, or alternatively, are a bit p***ed off as they have been taken for a ride are about to get the boot. Someone must know what's going on at the coalface.