Well, the Stobart brand wouldn't be bad place to start :ok:

Stobart, like British Regional/BACX years ago, don't have an airline identity of their own. Their aircraft operate in either FlyBe or Aer Lingus colours or all white - the latter is no identity at all, save for a small Stobart logo. If the company was to acquire FlyBe, I would wager that would be the public face of Stobart's airline activities.

The Stobart brand in general (not the airline) has far greater recognition amongst the general public than flyBe so why not use it?

Such a rebranding should attract huge publicity.

True, but most folk would associate Stobart with lorries whereas FlyBe is an established airline name with a history reaching at least as far back as Intra Airways.

Eddie Stobart would probably have more recognition than just Stobart alone, and even then it would be associated to Lorries, not flights.
Flybe is a much more recognised Airline brand.

Eddie Stobart is a separate company altogether from Stobart Group so Eddie Stobart couldn't be used.

I would think that Stobart Group would keep the Flybe name but all flights "operated by Stobart Air"

One of the main priorities to address in order to secure a reasonable chance of success outcome of a Flybe play, is STOB (or the SPV) ability to issue debt aka get a bond put away to refinance in Sterling the USD loans Flybe got hanging round their necks. Without that priority tucked away early on, and new lease agreement's out of Dublin, then it's a uphill battle and a drag on growth potential.

Mik3; I think it is worst than that, it takes someone special (CEO / Branding / Takeover) to resurrect a failing outfit like BE. STOB have displayed a mixed corporate business plan and at times the lack of airline / aviation experience is clear to all, should they take BE on I cannot see them having those skilll's to manage a root and branch operation at BE. It has been a failing airline for many years now! Furthermore, cutting a/c and staff would have to be the first actions and that is not conducive to improvement or expansion.

But Stobart have Warwick Brady in situ, ever such a nice chap!

Seriously though, is flybe's true name still actually 'British European'? ... They have their own CEO and management in place, the failing CEO got sent walkabout something like a couple of years ago, I guess the new CEO has at least had some success at turning things around, as I have been reading I understand that Stobart would be buying the company and not neccessarily firing the directors and management to replace them with a bunch of newbies.

I think you will be right Harry.

I cannot imagine why they would want to ditch the Flybe brand and I shouldn't think they have any intention of doing so. Let's move on.

Stobarts I am sure do realise Flybe is a good brand name and will keep it. Early days.

You do all realise there hasn't actually been an offer for FlyBe yet?

These boys all love to dream and speculate!

...... and there may well not be if Stobart do their due diligence. Plenty of other struggling European airlines out there ripe for a takeover..... or are there?

I don’t see why Stobart would rename the airline, other than corporate vanity.

As I’ve said upthread, I’m not sure there’s much to gain by merging RE and BE, indeed any merged entity would be insane to relinquish an EU or U.K. AOC right now.

Both RE and BE could grow their white-label flying without the other, other than 5 aircraft at SEN the airlines have very little in common and few effeciences to gain.

Wow, now it's being suggested to merge two airlines, where has that been reported in the press, can't one parent company operate two or more brands as IAG do?

The suggestion on the thread was that BE could be rebranded as Stobart or Eddie Stobart. If one company owns two airlines, it would seem sensible for them to work closely together, I don’t think that would require a rebranding of either airline or a formal merger, necessarily.
The question I haven’t seen answered is where effecienes and benefits of scale would come from, where the return on investment would come from? RE has a fresh fleet of ATRs, but BE needs to make decisions about its future fleet - rolling over the Q400s may make sense, of transitioning to the ATR. Arguably, more urgent is the question of the jets. What, if anything, should they be replaced with? E-2s? C-Series? Does flying subsidised jets from DSA and CWL even make sense, long term?
The more interesting question is weither flyBe could serve the 100-150 seat market easyJet and Ryanair are increasingly abandoning with their new aircraft seating ~200 passengers, or more on the A321s. Could flyBe make money with depreciated A319s or new C-Series? Or is that complexity unecessary and a fleet of ATR/Q400s on domestic U.K. and near EU routes the best way forward?

Isn’t this a potential brexit move?

RE is Irish registered

BE is British registered

I can envisage a maintenance facility at CAX!