The British regional airline Flybe has gone out of business for a second time after the carrier’s owners announced that they had called in the administrators early on Saturday morning.
In a brief statement, Flybe said it had ceased trading with immediate effect and that all flights had been cancelled. The collapse of Flybe marks the second time in less than three years that the airline brand has gone out of business.
Flybe operated regional services from Belfast City, Birmingham and Heathrow Airport across the UK, as well as to Amsterdam and Geneva. Based out of Birmingham Airport, the airline operated a small fleet of eight Dash 8 Q400 prior aircraft.
Before the pandemic, Flybe had been losing around £20 million per year until a private consortium led by private equity firm Cyrus Capital Partners and including Virgin Atlantic and the Stobart Group promised to pump £100 million into the ailing carrier.
There were plans afoot to rebrand Flybe as Virgin Connect but the pandemic dealt a death blow to the airline, and Flybe announced it had fallen into administration in March 2020.
By October 2020, however, a company linked to Cyrus Capital announced plans to resurrect Flybe and the following year, the new airline had been created. The first flight took place on April 12, 2022.
Flybe’s new owners did not immediately provide any further information behind the decision to place the company into administration.
“It is always sad to see an airline enter administration and we know that Flybe’s decision to stop trading will be distressing for all of its employees and customers,” commented Paul Smith, Consumer Director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority on Saturday.
“We urge passengers planning to fly with this airline not to go to the airport as all Flybe flights are cancelled,” Smith continued.
