I don't know a huge amount about the mechanics of leasing aircraft.... but when one plans to enter into a contract for a few months, is it normal to do a (brief) test flight - i.e. up in the air and fly a bit around the airfield - and get an engineer to do a brief inspection of the aircraft prior to signing with wet ink ? If the aircraft is in a poor state, I'd be rather dubious about relying on it verbal promises of "don't worry, we'll patch it up"
When buying a house, I'd want to do a survey at my own cost before putting in an offer, and then (post exchange, pre completion) I'd want to have another brief look around the property to make sure there's been no disasters (i.e. roof has not collapsed). Footballers get a thorough medical before any transfer document gets signed
If some sort of inspection pre-signing is normal, why were the technical issues with the planned-to-be-leased aircraft not spotted in advance ?
Apologies if this sounds terribly naive, and I'm not trying to have a go at Flybe, but I'm just genuinely puzzled as to why Flybe hasn't got the aircraft it expected from lessors, in the condition it expected