Southend-2
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The airport will make more money from passengers than an Amazon freight operation I would have thought although any additional income will be welcomed by Stobart. Is it worth the anti airport protests this operation generates when at some point Stobart will have to go to the council for planning permission to expand the airport?
I am sure Stobart will find it much harder to get the next application through the council and this Amazon will not help them win friends at the council. Think Bristol, Southampton, Stansted and Heathrow for council opposition to airport expansion. Short term gain for potential long term pain?
I am sure Stobart will find it much harder to get the next application through the council and this Amazon will not help them win friends at the council. Think Bristol, Southampton, Stansted and Heathrow for council opposition to airport expansion. Short term gain for potential long term pain?
Last edited by LTNman; 1st Mar 2020 at 08:00.
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Stobart Group announcement
Not good news for the airport...
Stobart Group, the aviation, energy and civil engineering group, provides the following update in relation to its investment in Connect Airways.
Connect Airways is made up of a consortium of shareholders encompassing Cyrus Capital (40%), Virgin Atlantic (30%) and Stobart Group (30%) that received EU merger clearance to take control of the assets of Flybe Limited on 5 July 2019.
Flybe, a subsidiary within the Connect Airways group of companies, has today ceased trading and will no longer be operating its planned flight schedule. Stobart Group, alongside its consortium partners, Virgin Atlantic and Cyrus Capital, are deeply disappointed that Flybe has been unable to secure a viable basis for its continuing operations and has therefore entered an administration process. The consortium wishes to express its immense gratitude to the 2,400 people employed by Flybe for their commitment and energy over the past 12 months.
Stobart Group, Virgin Atlantic and Cyrus Capital formed the Connect Airways consortium which intervened in 2019 to prevent the collapse of Flybe and keep Europe's largest regional airline flying. Customers and staff have been at the front of the consortium's minds, and over the past 14 months Connect Airways has invested more than £135m to keep the airline flying for an extra year. This amount includes approximately £25m of the £30m committed in January 2020.
Stobart Group's initial investment was made up through the sale of Stobart Air and its aircraft leasing business, Propius. As a result, the non-cash balance sheet impact on Stobart Group is £43.3m and the additional £7m investment made in 2020. The value of both these investments will now be written down to £nil on its balance sheet. The Group has also foregone deferred interest that it would have benefitted from in future periods. Stobart Group had not expected to receive a contribution from Connect Airways until after FY 2020.
Unlike Flybe, Stobart Air is not a wholly owned subsidiary of Connect Airways. Stobart Air's Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) controls 60% of the voting rights and Connect Airways controls 40%. As such Stobart Air's ongoing ability to trade is not directly impacted by the decision to place Flybe Limited into administration.
Flybe had shown promising signs of a turnaround despite the delay to receiving merger control clearance from the European Commission for its acquisition. However, despite the best efforts of all, not least the Flybe people, the impact of COVID-19 on Flybe's trading means that the consortium can no longer commit to continued financial support.
As a result of this news, London Southend Airport will see a short-term impact, with Flybe having planned to operate ten routes from the airport from Spring of this year. However, the long-term prospects of that airport remain compelling
Stobart Group, the aviation, energy and civil engineering group, provides the following update in relation to its investment in Connect Airways.
Connect Airways is made up of a consortium of shareholders encompassing Cyrus Capital (40%), Virgin Atlantic (30%) and Stobart Group (30%) that received EU merger clearance to take control of the assets of Flybe Limited on 5 July 2019.
Flybe, a subsidiary within the Connect Airways group of companies, has today ceased trading and will no longer be operating its planned flight schedule. Stobart Group, alongside its consortium partners, Virgin Atlantic and Cyrus Capital, are deeply disappointed that Flybe has been unable to secure a viable basis for its continuing operations and has therefore entered an administration process. The consortium wishes to express its immense gratitude to the 2,400 people employed by Flybe for their commitment and energy over the past 12 months.
Stobart Group, Virgin Atlantic and Cyrus Capital formed the Connect Airways consortium which intervened in 2019 to prevent the collapse of Flybe and keep Europe's largest regional airline flying. Customers and staff have been at the front of the consortium's minds, and over the past 14 months Connect Airways has invested more than £135m to keep the airline flying for an extra year. This amount includes approximately £25m of the £30m committed in January 2020.
Stobart Group's initial investment was made up through the sale of Stobart Air and its aircraft leasing business, Propius. As a result, the non-cash balance sheet impact on Stobart Group is £43.3m and the additional £7m investment made in 2020. The value of both these investments will now be written down to £nil on its balance sheet. The Group has also foregone deferred interest that it would have benefitted from in future periods. Stobart Group had not expected to receive a contribution from Connect Airways until after FY 2020.
Unlike Flybe, Stobart Air is not a wholly owned subsidiary of Connect Airways. Stobart Air's Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) controls 60% of the voting rights and Connect Airways controls 40%. As such Stobart Air's ongoing ability to trade is not directly impacted by the decision to place Flybe Limited into administration.
Flybe had shown promising signs of a turnaround despite the delay to receiving merger control clearance from the European Commission for its acquisition. However, despite the best efforts of all, not least the Flybe people, the impact of COVID-19 on Flybe's trading means that the consortium can no longer commit to continued financial support.
As a result of this news, London Southend Airport will see a short-term impact, with Flybe having planned to operate ten routes from the airport from Spring of this year. However, the long-term prospects of that airport remain compelling
As a result of this news, London Southend Airport will see a short-term impact, with Flybe having planned to operate ten routes from the airport from Spring of this year. However, the long-term prospects of that airport remain compelling
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So what is the status of the Stobart franchise flights? The CAA statement refers to flights operated by Stobart Air being cancelled, but I assumed initially this referred to mainline BE flights such as from IOM, EDI-LCY. The airport website doesn’t list Caen and Groningen as cancelled at this stage, in fact the airport says nothing, but local press say SEN flights are cancelled (not that I trust local press to get it right)
Franchise pax are urged to Contact the airlines ie Eastern and Blue island etc
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The obvious answer is that they have no booking infrastructure, but surely they've had plenty of notice - Eastern are saying they'll have something up and running by Monday, and may be available earlier.
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OK, makes sense. So the Stobart crew doing the Flybe franchise may be OK and flying again next week.
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It’s a bit different though for Eastern and Blue Islands in that they are pre-existing independent airlines with little other business so must continue or die. Stobart Air only flies under the identity of others with the bulk of the business for EI. They could carry on with the SEN operation but in light of Covid-19 and collapse in bookings I wonder if they’re hiding behind the Flybe collapse (most of their passengers will consider themselves Flybe customers not Stobart) to minimise losses.
To support this theory, the Stobart press release refers to Flybe planning to operate ten routes from spring. It doesn’t mention seven of those were Stobart Air routes.
To support this theory, the Stobart press release refers to Flybe planning to operate ten routes from spring. It doesn’t mention seven of those were Stobart Air routes.
It’s a bit different though for Eastern and Blue Islands in that they are pre-existing independent airlines with little other business so must continue or die. Stobart Air only flies under the identity of others with the bulk of the business for EI. They could carry on with the SEN operation but in light of Covid-19 and collapse in bookings I wonder if they’re hiding behind the Flybe collapse (most of their passengers will consider themselves Flybe customers not Stobart) to minimise losses.
SWBKCB
I think you're right.
Yesterday all the SEN Stobart Air/Flybe routes were bookable on the Virgin website under VS flight numbers - as they have been for a couple of weeks at least. All that was needed was to fly the next few days flights under the normal STK flight numbers for flight planning etc. and to notify booked passengers that their flight number will change to VSxxxx. Additionally issue a press release advising that future passengers should book via the Virgin website, listing all the routes that they were 'rescuing' for the already booked pax.
I think that may well have been the plan in case Government funding was not forthcoming but along came the worsening Covid-19 situation in recent days so "Naaah, let's not go there."
I think you're right.
Yesterday all the SEN Stobart Air/Flybe routes were bookable on the Virgin website under VS flight numbers - as they have been for a couple of weeks at least. All that was needed was to fly the next few days flights under the normal STK flight numbers for flight planning etc. and to notify booked passengers that their flight number will change to VSxxxx. Additionally issue a press release advising that future passengers should book via the Virgin website, listing all the routes that they were 'rescuing' for the already booked pax.
I think that may well have been the plan in case Government funding was not forthcoming but along came the worsening Covid-19 situation in recent days so "Naaah, let's not go there."