And what if Flybe had promoted some staff into cabincrew positions in that 3 week period from signing to completion and then turned to you and advised there was no no need of your services any longer?? With an acquisition where TUPE applies, both legally and morally it would have been wrong.
You can't advertise for a position that doesn't exist which would have been the case and I expect that there was a requirement to hold open any vacancies for any Ex BACon ops staff if they wanted it. Anyone who wanted, had to be given the opportunity to continue there employment which was absolutely the right decision. It is likely that the reason for the shortfall now is that some who had elected to go to Flybe then decided it was not for them and this would have left them short of ops staff.