I would hate to be relying on Flybe to get me home for Christmas. When I was in the regional business, Christmas Eve was one of our more nail biting days (we didn’t fly on Christmas Day) as we had loads of full flights and it really mattered to us to get everyone where they wanted to be. We had crew, ops staff and engineers on standby for Christmas Day in case events conspired against us but I’m happy to say that we had a 100% success record in getting everyone, and all the aircraft, where they were supposed to be and at about 22.00 there was the happy job of calling all the standbys to tell them they wouldn’t be needed and could have Christmas Day off.
I recount this because, IMHO, it is the necessary ethos for a regional airline. Passengers have to trust that you will get them where they want to be at (at least) roughly the right time. While I have no doubt that many of the current Flybe staff are pulling their hair out at the moment, they cannot carry on as they are.