Regional U.K. based carrier Flybe has announced it has ceased trading and subsequently cancelled all flights.
In a statement, the CAA told all those booked on Flybe services not to head to the airport. In addition, noting that flights would not be rescheduled and this was an immediate shutdown.
However, this is not the first time Flybe has experienced such a fate. During the coronavirus pandemic, the airline collapsed. It was in 2021 that the airline exited administration and was reborn once more as a regional airline. However, even as it was reborn, the airline never truly hit the heights management and ownership were hopeful it would. It continued to struggle before this announcement.
Flybe, per Cirium data, only had eight aircraft in service when it announced it had ceased trading. All of these were Dash 8 Q400s. One additional unit was in storage.
The carrier operated services across 21 routes, going as far as Amsterdam and Geneva. An outpouring of emotion has headed in the direction of the hundreds of staff that represented Flybe and are now experiencing their livelihood collapse before their eyes. Airlines such as Ryanair have been proactive and looked towards hiring staff previously positioned with Flybe.
Flybe is among many airlines globally that the current state of the world has negatively impacted. Rising costs have no doubt contributed to the result of a business that has found it challenging in its current state to survive.
The news was published at 3 am local time in the U.K.
Flybe was destined to fail with their routes.
Their collapse certainly isn’t what you’d call unexpected.