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Old 10th Apr 2021, 19:28
  #272 (permalink)  
globetrotter79
 
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Happy to be proven wrong - but I can't think of an example of an airline successfully making it through any form of 'pre-pack' (to be clear, I'm not talking about a US-style Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection procedure, I mean a 'proper' placement into administration to enable the shedding of debts as being discussed here). Under normal circumstances, one whiff of an airline going into administration (or even the threat of) and punters lose faith overnight. (In reality, I think Covid was only part of flybe Mk1's cash issue - the hanging, and well publicised, threat of potential cessation of ops had already caused a far greater cash crisis).

All this said, the world has never experienced a major close-down of the air travel industry such as that of the last 12 months. In many respects an awful lot of carriers are pretty much going to be starting again from scratch on the vast majority of their routes once travel restrictions ease. At the same time, so much has happened since March last year that I'd wager a decent percentage of flybe's potential future customer base will have forgotten all about the whys and wherefores of their failure.

Could this be the one case of an airline/brand that manages to essentially struggle through administration and back out the other side?

(Whether there's any place left for them in what is frankly a very different market is, of course, the far more fundamental question - let's face it, if the brand was as tainted as some believe, its hardly the end of the world to change it!)
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