Flybe Enters Administration for a Second Time

DALLAS - UK regional carrier Flybe (BE) has ceased trading for a second time, cancelling all flights to and from the UK.

A statement on the airline's website said, "Flybe has now ceased trading, and all flights from and to the UK operated by Flybe have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled."

https://twitter.com/flybe/status/1619171652646096896?s=20&t=Hez1pGMJq-vWb4wskHmcMA

Bold Plans

The airline relaunched operations in April 2022, rising from the ashes of its predecessor with the same name, which collapsed in March 2020 with the loss of 2,400 jobs. Its assets had been purchased for £1 by Thyme Opco, a company linked to US investment firm Cyrus Capital.

Flybe V.2 had bold plans to operate up to 530 flights per week across 23 routes. Its main bases were Birmingham (BHX) and Belfast City (BHD), with services covering London Heathrow (LHR), Edinburgh (EDI), Glasgow (GLA), Amsterdam (AMS) and Geneva (GVA), plus many more.

Much like its predecessor, it also operated the De Havilland Dash 8-Q400, some of which had flown for the first incarnation of the airline. Cirium fleet data has eight of the type in service.

The airline played an important role in UK regional aviation. Photo: Flybe.

Ongoing Issues

However, since the relaunch, Flybe has been plagued with issues. In October, the airline announced that it had scrapped plans to return to the Isle of Man (IOM), citing delays in the delivery of new airframes.

This followed the news in July 2022 that it had slashed its summer schedule with a whopping 700 services affected. New routes from BHD to Aberdeen (ABZ), Inverness (INV) and Newcastle (NCL) and from BHX to ABZ were also scrapped. The airline was forced to lease additional capacity from other airlines, with an Embraer E175 from Marathon Air and an ATR 72 from Swift Air (WT).

https://airwaysmag.com/british-european-airways-as-flybe/

Featured Image: Flybe DHC Q400 (G-ECOR) at AMS. Photo: Adrian Nowakowski/Airways.