They do seem to be the unloved child. First VR (Little Red operated by EI) then FlyBe1 then 2. My understanding is a relic of the BA BM buyout and reserved for UK domestic competition. Not sure of the benefits of a turboprop going into LHR.

According to Head For Points the summer remedy slots are now owned by Flybe so if there is no buyer for the airline these would go back to the pool, rather than BA?

The administrator is quoted in the Financial Times as saying the slots can only be bought with the whole business, and not on their own.

I would have thought that if the summer remedy slots are owned by Flybe they would have been sold. Given the efforts they’ve gone to to get them, why on earth would the shareholders just let them go to the administrators? I will be interested to see the accounts. Did they actually run out of money or just throw in the towel?

https://www.interpathadvisory.com/me...flybe-limited/

Some quotes from the administrators here saying they 'exhausted their capital.'

Ryanair, easyJet, British Airways and LNER offering special deals to Flybe customers - Chronicle Live

LNER is offering all Flybe customers who have had their flights cancelled can travel on any LNER service to their destination for free on 28 January and 29 January. Customers will need to present their cancelled airline ticket.

These sort of offers are commonly made, not so much in "good faith", but more as a means of getting cheap publicity from media editors who just publish them as received, regardless of whether the route structures are remotely comparable. Quite whether any passengers at all are even able to take advantage of an "offer" which only embraces two weekend days, half of the first already being gone before it is announced, remains to be seen.

And to prove the point, the LNER offer would be good for LHR-NCL passengers, which doesn't operate on Saturday or Sunday. Probably less useful for BHD-NCL pax...

The Sunday Times, without citing a source, says Flybe was losing £5m a month before it went into administration:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f...apse-qcv6sq8b6

Absolutely true.

The route network was absolutely absurd and they made the grave error of said route network going up against big players like Easyjet, BA and - as much as it pains many in here to admit they are now a big player - Loganair.

I think they vastly misjudged the state of UK regional aviation post-brexit/post-pandemic as well as a reliance on this so called "loved brand" for which the affection really only extended to those who worked there. It's a crying shame for all of the staff who worked beneath whatever lunatics were making these top-level decisions.

Hopefully the 100 or so pilots and however many cabin crew get picked up soon. At least one thing is for certain; wherever they end up they'll get better T&Cs and a more stable future. Good luck to you all, I know many great folk there and have no doubt you will look back on this as being a blessing in a few years time.

Oh come on. Anyone with an ounce of sense, especially if they worked for the first bunch, will know this whole exercise was a cynical attempt by Cyrus Capital to claw back the money they lost in 2020. Talk to anyone that was involved in setting up MkII in 2021, and they’ll tell you that the vast majority of people Cyrus drafted in under the guise of TO, didn’t have a clue about airline operations. And what “new startup” puts themselves up for sale moments after starting?

I feel desperately sorry for all the employees that have been burned, many for the second time, but within weeks it was obvious that it wasn’t going to last unless someone with some serious experience took it over and shook it. Sadly they didn’t as nobody is that stupid, but the result is now clear for everyone to see. Personally, I find the way Cyrus have acted as nothing short of scandalous.

Love the way Brexit is blamed for everything. Flybe’s troubles were of its own making.

An interesting statement by Loganair’s chief on the whole mess.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jonat...ium=member_ios

Indeed, Brexit is the principal cause of many ills in UK industry and commerce but its hard to see how it had anything to do with Flybe's demise.

Losing £5m a month and yet they persisted in sending an empty Dash up to Newcastle and back just to preserve the LHR operations until the very end. Madness and infuriating.

Sorry to all the good folk involved here. Never nice to see this happen and you all deserve better.

A quote from the Times article above.

"Administrators said the company was hurt by a delay in the delivery of 17 further aircraft that would have helped build out its network and give it scale to compete. They were held up by delays in the global supply chain for aircraft."

Utter drivel. If you're losing £5m already I'm not sure how you would have faired with another 17 aircraft on top.

The quote from the administrators is this (see link as #933 ) - I read this to include the previous delays we already know about:

Where has Brexit been blamed?

Unless they were holding onto the slots in the hope of cashing in on them.

Maybe not entirely. They were constantly having to cancel flights and change/reduce their schedule (sometimes at short notice), at least partly because there were persistent delays with aircraft due for delivery, and coming out of maintenance. Some of the ex-Flybe Mk1 aircraft that they were due to take could not be as they were not in a fit state after 2 years parked on cold/wet European airfields, allegedly.

Had some of those aircraft been available in a more timely fashion, they could have built resilience and a more reliable schedule, which may have delivered more revenue and resulted in less of the costs (which must have been significant) associated with frequent cancellations. Attempts were made to mitigate by bringing in aircraft from LOT, for example, but the damage was probably already done.

Having said all that, some of the route decisions seemed odd to say the least. None of that was the fault of the people operating the service, who didn't deserve the situation that has now transpired.

To make a difference those 17 frames would have to cover their variable costs and make a contribution to the fixed costs. If they had already picked the best routes and weren’t covering the variable costs, where are you going to place the extra frames where they are going to do anything except lose more money? This was the problem with Flybe 1, they were operating aircraft where revenue was less than total cost and eventually the money runs out.

I suspect that if Cyrus had seen aircraft at least covering their variable cost, it would have been a reason to put in more capital to cover the fixed costs and continue increasing the size of the fleet.