Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled – leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The official announcement was made just after 3am. But it had been clear from late on Wednesday that the airline was going out of business
The Exeter-based airline was bought a year ago by a consortium headed by Virgin Atlantic, and involving Stobart Group and the US hedge fund Cyrus Capital.
The owners put in at least £100m to keep Flybe afloat, but it was making such heavy losses that the money soon ran out.
While the coronavirus crisis will be blamed for hastening the demise of Flybe, the airline has been struggling for a while.
Why has it been struggling Bal?
Number of reasons – there’s alot of competition… alternative transport methods/routes, the digital world and not being prepared for headwinds (no pun intended)… such as this CoronaVirus. Many companies are prepared… well prepared, for such issues and problems. But take a look at Monarch… Thomas Cook…. Fly BMI…. all who have gone out of business. You have to look at their business models… how they operated and why they went out of business.
Some were late to the Digital way of thinking – especially Thomas Cook, whom I wrote about a while back.
You could argue… if coronavirus didn’t happen, would FlyBe still be operational… yes. But for how long?