......and this particular airframe indeed never operated by the old Flybe.

One of the Directors of Thyme Opco is also a Director of Cyrus Capital, owners of the defunct Flybe so I would conjecture that a rebirth is a step closer. The other Director has been an adviser and spokesman for Cyrus on Flybe matters.

Dash 8 G-CLXC is ex OE-LGA of Austrian Airlines.

southside bobby

Avoids any possible unpleasantness with creditors if it gets into operation?.

Might be best to start a new thread for the "rebirth"? It's unlikely to be called flybe after all and this feels a tad like dancing on the grave of an old friend.

If someone else wants to fly a 20 year old Q400 on flybe's old routes then fair play but perhaps let's leave the old Jersey European company to rest in peace. No one looks at an Eastern B767 today and says "Oh I remember when they flew TriStars out of Miami

Skipness One Foxtrot

Then why buy the Flybe brand and website?

So who owns all the flight & revenue data?...perhaps the main reason for the asset purchase.

DC3 Dave

Because they're clowns with money to burn? The brand was beyond redemption years ago, in the public's mind, flybe is a now bankrupt airline that flew old propellor planes and was frequently unreliable. They spent money on buying THAT? This whole idea is a crackpot delusion that would be a very bad idea even in a good year.

Aviation is legendary for parting otherwise sensible investors from their money, it screws with good judgement as the part of your brain that deals with religion, faith, loyalty, belief, purpose and even rising from the dead gets involved.

They don't deserve a second chance, certainly not one where their original creditors remain overwhelmingly unpaid. By all means start something new, but I have a problem with resurrecting failed airlines from the dead.

Or maybe they are very smart. Buying an airline in a box with a portfolio of slots, licenses in place, no debts, a customer data base, minimal cash burn their choice of launch timing and very cheap aircraft leasing options. We will just have to see.

So to quote jethros web site info, Type 'A' AOC licence applied for 01 Dec 20
Yesterday we read that they have now registered 1 Dash8

How long does it take for them to get the Type A AOC Licence.

I suspect they're not in any rush at present. What they do have though is a nearby Flight Training organisation and hundreds of unemployed ex Flybe crew all revalidated and checked out in Q400 simulators throughout this Winter. That's one of the major hurdles and costs associated with a startup jumped cleanly already!

Would a new flybe inherit existing marketing opt-ins to the old flybe's customer database under GDPR?

If it's the same legal entity I guess TUPE would apply to the rehiring of flight crew and any other previous employees?

I'm intrigued to see what their intentions are. Where they think there is money to be made from the old airline. I would have thought any of the routes which made money would now have new operators?

Purchasing the same legal entity is usually a big NO since it tends to include all the old unpaid debts. One tends to buy certain assets (eg the software to run the website or specific airport slots) of the old failed company instead, but leave the old legal entity well alone

So any data on customers they may have is for analysis only and pre COVID and dated? They cannot direct market to anyone via email or DM?

biddedout

Perhaps also add years of losses to write future profits off against?

Not if the new owners set up a new legal entity as has been mentioned. Thyme OpCo haven’t agreed to buy the business of Flybe Ltd, they’ve bought certain Flybe assets from the administrators of Flybe Ltd.

Let's not forget that Cyrus and Virgin are two of Flybes biggest secured creditors. Its likely they will see some of their expense back through the administration process or even write some off rather than pay.

Chatting away to a few people in recent days, a couple in fairly high-up places, and they had some very interesting views of Flybe 2.

It is exactly as JSCL suggests in terms of Cyrus trying to get some of their losses back through the administration process, getting their mitts on those slots which are worth something. There's apparently still a legal battle going on about the Heathrow slots etc etc and Cyrus took security over the slots in return for some of the loans it advanced to Flybe 1.

It sounds like this could be an elaborate deception. To get the slots from Flybe 1, Flybe 2 has to have its licences in place. It doesn't want to buy Flybe 1 for all of the reasons above, but has to have an aircraft to do a proving flight, be awarded its AOC and then receive its Operating Licence. The ageing Austrian Q400 is the cheapest way of doing that and it sounds like hardly any of the other leasing companies will deal with them as none believe the plan is credible (and they might be right!). Get the licences, transfer the slots, sell them and pack up after never carrying a passenger. Solves the problem of branding for sure.

They must have had to put a business plan forward to the CAA and I wouldn't suspect that plan says this. But this is increasingly the suspicion across the industry judging by what I'm hearing.

Cyrus is never going to hold on to flybe long term. When time is right sell, they will flybe on to make back money from investment

This is very interesting. I did think it was fishy when I found that Q400 they had registered is older than any of the Flybe ones were.

I hope if we do see Flybe 2.0 they have learnt from some of their rivalry behaviours - taking the Ryanair approach dumping capacity onto competitors routes and dropping it after having forced said competitor off the route. The loganair/eastern highland debacle is probably the most prominent example of this, and they quite clearly never had the financial strength that Ryanair or similar do.