The message from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Twitter on Thursday morning was laconic: " Flybe has gone into liquidation. All Flybe flights are cancelled. Please do not travel to the airport as your Flybe flight will not be operational. For flights operated by franchise partners, passengers should contact their airline. #Flybe ". The end is nigh for Europe's largest regional airline, with Flybe representing more than 30% capacity and nearly 40% frequencies on UK domestic routes in 2018. It carried eight million passengers annual reports. The liquidation of the company results in immediate suspension of all lines operated by the carrier, i.e. some 200 routes. The company offered a dozen lines in France in particular.
The airline was in serious financial difficulty, weakened by competition, the slowdown in the British economy with the Brexit and the rise in oil prices at the end of last year. Visit Boris Johnson's government promised in January to unlock 100 million pounds to help the company avoid bankruptcy. Except that the budget was not due to be released until next week, while losses accelerated due to the passenger disaffection with the coronavirus crisis. Hence the decision by the airline's owners, Connect Airways - a consortium made up of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Air and hedge fund Cyrus Capital - to wind down Flybe's business, just over a year after buying it. The airline's chief executive, Mark Anderson, said it had been " unable to overcome major financing problems ".
The government is now working on an urgent solution to Flybe's defection. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the government " worked urgently "with the airline industry to " help redistribute key routes to other airlines as soon as possible ". Some regions of the UK have been particularly hard hit, such asNorthern Ireland where at Belfast In City, Flybe accounted for 70% of traffic, with a very high market share on the Belfast City-Birmingham and Belfast City-Manchester routes. A SouthamptonIn the United States, this share was as high as 92%, while at CardiffIn Wales, the capital, this figure was 42% of all capacity offered on domestic routes.
In the meantime, the government has asked railway companiesThese include First Rail (a consortium managing Great Western Railway, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express and Avanti West Coast) to carry Flybe passengers free of charge. EasyJet is also offering reduced fares to passengers.
