Flybe-V1

[Snr]

"On the evening of 3 March 2020, the directors of Flybe were informed by Virgin that, as a result of the adverse impact of COVID-19 coronavirus on its own bookings, it was no longer able to provide further funding to Connect or Flybe."

Thank you to Sandy78 for pointing out the document. I stand by my original comment. 24 hours prior to the collapse, Virgin pulled out of providing any additional funding, which had been agreed back in January. There were many reasons Flybe/Connect failed, but the final nail in the coffin was Virgin (rightly) choosing mainline over the "subsidiary".

[davidjpowell]

This thread is confusing. I think it would not be wrong to say Flybe was not in a good state in December. It had hope from the new ownership structure, but it was not out of the woods.

Covid then came along and I do recall press releases about booking falling off a cliff. On top of that the new owners bookings were presumably seeing a similar pattern and it would have been only a matter of time before they had to prioritise funding their mainline airline survival.

Whether it was Virgin or one of the other investors it was going to happen. The investors did not put the final nail in the coffin. Covid did.

[robby239]

what will happen to the former Flybe MPL cadets?

[Jamesair1]

Not only caused by Covid, as soon as the general public gets a hint of an airline in trouble (and their money being lost), the speculation rapidly turns into a fact with forward bookings grinding to a shuddering halt.

[fjencl]

Today's update

Flybe's return to the skies moves a step closer
Cyrus Capital applies for operating licence for the airline and pledges to 'restore essential regional connectivity

[Flitefone]

...and a step further away perhaps with the BACF announcement today re Southampton routes..

[cavokblues]

I'm not sure - BACF's announcement is very much just a weekend summer operation only. I, personally, would be surprised if Flybe is back in the skies by when the flights end next October....! Never say never...

[HH6702]

maybe as Cyrus now owns the name they have requested the change before they relaunch

[shamrock7seal]

So debts or liabilities basically total GBP427m

How on earth is this going to work?

[JobsaGoodun]

If I'm not mistaken, the debts remain with the original business and therefore probably aren't picked up by the new company, Thyme OpCo.

[biddedout]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10693875
This damage. I remember him boasting about the 5Bn bit. Shortly after that he invited Digby Jones onto the board.

[AirportPlanner1]

£65 EXT-LCY doesn’t sound too bad at all to me, given it was up against the peak train it should actually have been more. £30 is unrealistic and EZY on a route like that is fantasy. Perhaps a good assessment then of the overall faults.

[fjencl]

Are we likely to see this year 2021 the opening up of flybe2 .......

[cavokblues]

Originally Posted by airsouthwest

Flybe should have scaled back and offloaded the E195s faster

To be fair I think they tried everything to rid themselves of those aircraft but they were tied in to those contracts and concluded it was better to fly them and at least try and make some money for them, rather than having them sat on the ground.

Like every airline failure the company had bad decision compounded by bad decision over several years. They just had too many aircraft and no control over the size of their fleet.

[virginblue]

Originally Posted by airsouthwest

Flybe should have really taken some inspiration from Porter Airlines who seem to have a fairly strong business. Instead they tried to be a business airline, ski airline, a charter airline and a tourist airline along with a low cost airline to match Easyjet/Ryanair

Porter has also expandend into leisure/ski/tourist markets - I am not really sure this really is the difference between the two.

[cavokblues]

I think Flybe did, to a degree, have a similar strategy to Porter with their operations out of City airport, where did they quite well.

They were obviously a much larger airline than Porter. Their problem was a lot of their trunk routes elsewhere didn't make much money. And if they did they were always in danger of a easyJet or Ryanair coming along, with a much lower cost base, and stealing their market.

With the right fleet selection, and free or ridiculous lease agreements, there probably is a bit of money to be made replicating a bit of Flybe's old route network. It's just never going to be a huge money spinner IMO.

[BA318]

virginblue

Porter are more like BA Cityflyer. They seem to target slightly higher end tourist markets in the downtime on their business routes and they offer an onboard service and a more premium approach.

FlyBe on the other hand tried to be everything to everyone - a business airline, a cheap airline, a holiday airline and obviously failed at that. I still think FlyBe missed so many opportunities. It started flying from LCY and went up against BA on the routes rather than operating other routes - there is a gap for services to smaller Scandinavian cities, French towns for second home owners (similar to where they flew from SOU).

[Albert Hall]

I think Flybe did, to a degree, have a similar strategy to Porter with their operations out of City airport, where did they quite well

Flybe's operations at LCY, and the LHR services, were an utter calamity. I am not sure where you get the idea that they "did quite well" but they did not. BHD was the only route at LCY which was any good and that only did OK because of an overall deal on airport charges that forced Flybe to fly lots of other LCY routes to generate volume. The rest and particularly EDI-LCY were complete basketcases. If Flybe 2 want to replicate Flybe 1, I hope they have deep pockets.

[ATNotts]

But FlyBe were never set up as a low cost airline, the routes they appear to have done best on were those where they weren't competing with a low cost carrier, or were in code share agreements with.

[cavokblues]

Originally Posted by Albert Hall

Flybe's operations at LCY, and the LHR services, were an utter calamity. I am not sure where you get the idea that they "did quite well" but they did not.

Fair point, mine was purely anecdotal and I assumed because the Edinburgh, Exeter, Amsterdam routes had been there for 6 years or so they must have been making some money on them, but not sure that's even true with Flybe. I recall reading something that when Saad came in 59% of their routes were loss making!