Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Flybe goes bust – all flights cancelled

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

In an unexpected move on Saturday morning, UK regional airline Flybe filed for administration.

All flights are cancelled and customers are unlikely to receive any refunds, except via a credit card chargeback.

Data from Cirium shows that the airline was due to operate 292 flights over the next week with over 22,000 seats.

The airline had only resumed flying in April 2022. The original iteration of Flybe went bankrupt before the pandemic and its assets – primarily just the name and website – were bought back by Cyrus Capital. Cyrus is a private equity investor which had been part of the Virgin Atlantic consortium that had initially tried and failed to keep the airline afloat.

Flybe goes into administration

Whilst the brand and Heathrow Summer slots were retained – which is arguably what the new owners coveted, in order to sell them on – a new management team was brought in. It was, in effect, a brand-new startup. Flybe had re-leased some of its former De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft – not many other UK or European airlines use this type of aircraft and they had not all found new homes.

A message posted on the airline website this morning says:

“On 28 January 2023, the High Court appointed David Pike and Mike Pink as Joint Administrators of Flybe Limited (“Flybe”).

Flybe has now ceased trading and all flights from and to the UK operated by Flybe have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.

If you are a passenger affected by this event, please read the advice below.

If you are due to fly with Flybe today or in the future, please DO NOT TRAVEL TO THE AIRPORT unless you have arranged an alternative flight with another airline. Please note that Flybe is unfortunately not able to arrange alternative flights for passengers.

If you have a Flybe booking sold by an intermediary (i.e. not directly with Flybe) that includes travel on a Flybe flight, please contact the relevant airline or booking / travel agent to confirm if there is any impact to your travel plans as the intermediary may be able to support you with alternative arrangements and provide further advice regarding any claim you may need to make.

Customers are also advised to monitor the Civil Aviation Authority website for further information www.caa.co.uk/news.”

Flybe goes into receivership

A more ‘personal’ message was posted on social media:

Since we relaunched the business last April, we’ve been humbled by the goodwill and support shown to us from customers, stakeholders and the whole aviation industry. We had made it our mission to bring the airline back to full capacity efficiently, creating jobs, and establishing better regional connectivity across the UK, using aircraft that have a lower carbon footprint by design. We also hoped to widen our network, partnering with other operators with access to Europe and the US.

Unfortunately, while we made significant progress in certain areas, there were a number of hurdles in our way which we were unable to overcome.

We’d like to thank all of our wonderful customers for your support since we relaunched Flybe in April 2022. Its been our absolute pleasure and privilege to serve you.

Above all, we want to say an enormous thank you to our team of brilliant people, who worked so tirelessly to make Flybe a success.

Flybe Winter 22-23 network

The Civil Aviation Authority said:

Flybe, which operated scheduled services from Belfast City, Birmingham and Heathrow to airports across the United Kingdom and to Amsterdam and Geneva, has ceased trading.

All Flybe-flights have now been cancelled. Please do not go to the airport as flights will not be operating.

Flybe customers who still need to travel, will need to make their own alternative travel arrangements via other airlines, rail or coach operators.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority will provide advice and information to affected passengers. More information can be found on www.caa.co.uk/news when it is available.

Information will also be made available on our Twitter feed @UK_CAA

Paul Smith, Consumer Director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:

“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.

“We urge passengers planning to fly with this airline not to go to the airport as all Flybe flights are cancelled. For the latest advice, Flybe customers should visit the Civil Aviation Authority’s website or our Twitter feed for more information.”

Flybe inaugural rhys
Flybe inaugural service April 2022

Flybe never had an easy life

The past five years have been anything but smooth for Flybe, which has its roots in Jersey European Airways, founded in 1979. In 2000, the airline was renamed British European before another rebrand in 2002, as Flybe.

Here’s a quick timeline of the past 15 years:

In the last fifteen years, Flybe went from being the largest regional airline in Europe to the verge of collapse, only to be saved by a consortium led by Cyrus Capital, before being saved from collapse by the Government in early 2020.

The airline then collapsed – for real this time – in March 2020, before being resurrected by Cyrus Capital two years later.

And here we go again

There had been signs, of course, that the situation at the ‘new’ airline was not well. Routes had been cancelled at short notice (eg Isle of Man) with the blame placed – allegedly – on the non-receipt of aircraft from lessors. It had already become a bit of a leap of faith to make a booking well in advance.

The timing is unfortunate. In April 2023, Air Passenger Duty on UK domestic flights will be halved. This would have made a substantial difference to the financial performance of the airline.

It is also, of course, just two months away from the pick-up of travel over Easter. It is a shame that the airline survived the bulk of the quieter Winter season but not all of it.

The collapse will be a blow to Belfast City and Birmingham airports which had been the two key Flybe bases.

One key question is what will happen to the seven daily Heathrow slot pairs being operated by Flybe – albeit some were, I think, leased rather than owned.

LNER offfering free rail travel to Flybe passengers

LNER has announced that anyone on a Flybe route which is covered by the LNER rail network can travel for free on Saturday and Sunday.

Details on Twitter here.

BA and Ryanair launch ‘rescue’ fares

Ryanair, never one to miss an opportunity, has launched ‘rescue’ fares starting from £29.99 to accommodate customers affected by Flybe. This includes routes from Belfast to East Midlands, Manchester and London Stansted.

Fares are on sale on the Ryanair website for travel from 26th March – so it isn’t much use if you need to travel in the next eight weeks. In reality, it looks like the company has simply reduced selected flights from ex-Flybe airports.

British Airways is being more helpful if you need to travel imediately.

BA is offering discounted one-way fares at a flat fee of £50 / €60 plus taxes, charges and fees on routes between London and Belfast, Newcastle and Amsterdam. These fares includes one checked-in suitcase. You must call a British Airways contact centre to get these fares – ba.com is only selling the usual high last-minute fares.

We will update this article as there is further news. For nostalgia, here is our article for the Flybe inaugural flight back in April 2022.

Category

General

Comments (120)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • insider says:
    28 Jan28 January 09:32

    I always assumed that the hedge fund backers of the revived Flybe were just there to try and sell off the Heathrow slots when they were able to do it. Must have been too much of a cash drain to continue

    • Rob says:
      28 Jan28 January 09:40

      My assumption too ….

    • Bagoly says:
      28 Jan28 January 10:17

      But the Administrators can sell those slots making recovery percentage higher than normal?
      Or are they now forfeited by virtue of the administration?

      • Rob says:
        28 Jan28 January 10:21

        The original issue is that the airline only had slots for half the year. I think it now had matching slots for the other half so, yes, there may be value there. Of course you can’t ‘sell’ a Heathrow slot, you need to swap it for another one. What happens is that Airline B applies for a slot at 23.59 (or whatever the last departure time is) which is available, then trades it with Airline A (with cash on top) for the slot Airline A is ‘selling’. Airline A doesn’t use the 23.59 slot and so it reverts back to Heathrow.

  • Aaron McHale says:
    28 Jan28 January 09:37

    Long time HfP reader here. I flew with Flybe literally just before Christmas, I happened to make a video blog review of my flight. So I figured I’d share it here in case anyone wants to experience what the airline was like. https://youtu.be/xE3m86lQBVc

    • WaynedP says:
      28 Jan28 January 10:43

      Thank you, Aaron. Very telling to see how empty the aircraft was, and the habitual delays spoken of elsewhere, offputting for anyone other than a casual leisure traveller with loads of free time.

      Thoroughly agree that walking across the apron tarmac exposed to the elements and smell of jet fuel and climbing onto steps from ground level to board a plane gets my heart rate up in a way that trudging down a hermetically sealed air bridge will never match.

    • Mike Hunt says:
      28 Jan28 January 11:06

      Aaron – great video. Also well done on the Lincoln highlights video – very few people manage to get the Ann Summers shop in their Lincoln tourist photos but you did – well done

  • Paul says:
    28 Jan28 January 09:39

    It’s very sad for all those who work for Flybe and who woke up this morning to find they have no job and perhaps won’t get paid next week. My heart goes out to them and all the passengers impacted.

    The UK just seems to be utterly broken. I don’t see any service, public or private that either works as it should or in the interests of its customers /citizens.

    I get I should be optimistic and not talk the country down but that’s a bit like telling me to be optimistic and positive about my cars shiny alloy wheels, rather than fret about the fact that somebody else just filled it with diesel rather than petrol, rendering it useless.

    • lumma says:
      28 Jan28 January 09:57

      It takes a lot of effort to put diesel in a petrol car as the pump won’t fit

      • Paul says:
        28 Jan28 January 10:34

        Yes it does but that’s exactly what has happened to the U.K. a lot of effort has been put in to wrecking it

        • JDB says:
          28 Jan28 January 11:20

          I think you must spend too much time reading/listening to the press. Yes, there are lots of problems but many of the same problems we have are global; try talking to people in Italy, France, Argentina, the US or China. They too are totally fed up with decay and broken politics. Personally however, I think it’s totally pointless (and harmful to your health) constantly moaning about it, particularly when you have limited information. I talk to and invest in companies of all sizes as well as start ups but fortunately they don’t have that negative mindset but work to overcome the inevitable difficulties they will constantly encounter. Exporting to the EU is not impossible, just a bit more difficult. If you find it too difficult, smart companies particularly in the high value food sector have found new markets inside the UK (I’m delighted with all the previously meat, seafood, cheese etc. we can now get). The people I am dealing with are creating jobs directly and indirectly (and in companies where I have any say in the matter looking after people well) investing in technology and research etc. We have cutting edge businesses in life sciences/medical research, fintech, creative arts etc. In the south as ‘ordinary’ agriculture has got more difficult, higher value added crops such as vineyards are popping up everywhere and farmers in the UK are adjusting there business models while having far higher standards of welfare than most countries.

          There are just so many good business out there looking after employees and customers, addressing sustainability and paying dividends for people’s pensions.

          Yes, it’s really easy to be an armchair commentator full of gloom and negativity but I prefer to be positive and try to improve what we can.

          PS neither of the main political parties will fix any of this; they never have.

          • DaveJ says:
            28 Jan28 January 11:57

            The UK is the only G7 country to have a lower GDP than pre Covid.

            Maybe do some research next time eh?

          • Paul says:
            28 Jan28 January 12:08

            This is nonsense. You don’t wait for hours for an ambulance in Germany or indeed anywhere else in Europe, you don’t face weeks, months, years waiting for treatment. Roads in Germany are not falling apart. Oh and the vineyard along the road from me just went bust!!
            The grass is not always greener and other countries have the challenges too, but the current desperate state of affairs here is what I am concerned about. The lack of accountability, the tax avoidance, the lies and the false optimism. The loss of rights held for 40 plus years. All of that overshadows whatever success there is is elsewhere.

          • Colin MacKinnon says:
            28 Jan28 January 14:05

            + 1 JDB

            I was asked to give a chat to my old school and didn’t really know what to say. Eventually I mentioned all the crises from when my father was born in 1920. If you took anyone from the “end of the world” camp and showed them today – heated carpets in BMWs! – they wouldn’t believe it.

            When times are bad, it is the time to invest. At my tiny airfield, we installed solar PV and battery storage in 2021, we paved the driveway (£25k and no avios earned!) in 2022 and this year we are building a flight simulator based on an old aircraft and a special room with a 230 degree curved screen. It will be a first for Scotland.

            So I am doing what we preach.

            I do agree about potholes, having just come back from Panama, which has some whoppers! My thought: safe smooth roads must help build trust in government, the potholes we now have in South Lanarkshire risk residents losing all faith in their council/government – and this does nothing to support social cohesion.

          • Mikeact says:
            28 Jan28 January 15:41

            Agreed +1

          • Mohammed Bikuz says:
            29 Jan29 January 02:59

            Hard to believe in your expertise when you don’t know how to spell there versus their, among a litany of basic spelling and grammar mistakes in your lengthy posts about being a great expert at everything!

    • Mike Hunt says:
      28 Jan28 January 11:02

      Paul – was it your wife that put diesel in your petrol car ?

    • Londonsteve says:
      28 Jan28 January 11:53

      +1. I’ve never known the standard of living in the UK to be so low as it is today. My immediate surroundings present a picture of a struggling developing country with cratered roads, mountains of litter, evidence of severe social decay in a formerly dignified middle class area, half the shops are shuttered, the other half are fast food outlets, charity shops and fronts for money laundering. A thinly disguised veil of menace sits over the area. I pray daily that my elderly parents won’t need an ambulance any time soon. The outlook, in so much as there is any, is one of a sad downward slide. I find the most enjoyable thing is getting on a plane that’s leaving the UK.

      • Mike Hunt says:
        28 Jan28 January 12:33

        London Steve – I invite you to move up North. It’s jolly cheerful, people chat to each other – you will find your money will go much further too. No thin veil of menace- although you encounter a thin veil of mist especially in the morning at this time of year.

        • Rob says:
          28 Jan28 January 12:59

          The Times reported this week that, in fact, anti-social behaviour in provincial towns is a major factor in their decay with many people too scared to take a bus or walk through a town centre, even in daylight.

          You can’t regenerate a town centre when people are too scared to go there.

        • DaveJ says:
          28 Jan28 January 13:38

          So we don’t need levelling up then as the north is so good?!

          Great news.

        • Mikeact says:
          28 Jan28 January 15:43

          Apart from the problems in Liverpool

      • JDB says:
        28 Jan28 January 13:00

        As one of a tiny minority of people who can afford to travel abroad, I trust you and others in your position are doing your bit to help improve or resolve the issues you report as I can guarantee that no central government or local authority will deal with it. It requires local people and them getting help from outside; it’s been done all over the country. The state has no extra money or resource, nor will it have in at least the next three electoral cycles (unless of course they come after your pension or property, still the biggest tax breaks around, but I’m sure you wouldn’t like that). It’s a problem that everyone expects the state to fix everything – people used to look after elderly relatives but now they expect the state to do that for free while hanging on to the older person’s property to inherit. People are happy to smoke and eat themselves to ill health and expect the state (ie other taxpayers) to pick up the huge lifelong tab they have unnecessarily created. Many expect the state to be 100% responsible for the education of their children and then blame the state that their children are delinquent.

        • LittleNick says:
          28 Jan28 January 14:01

          It’s not that the State doesn’t have the resources, it’s that the Government chooses to spend it in ways that don’t directly benefit its citizens. Things that used to work in this country are now at breaking point because successive governments have decided to divert funds elsewhere for the latest pet project. And anything that is left for public services is misappropriated, wasted and inefficient. NHS is a classic example, throwing more money at is not always the answer. Eg The NHS buys paracetamol at multiple times what it costs at retail in Tesco, complete and utter failure of management. Just one small but significant example. Contrary to popular belief the UK is not a low tax country, which wouldn’t be an issue if the money was going to were it supposed to to improve our quality of living. Very comparable to lots of developed countries but return on our tax take is far poorer. We get a very rotten deal.

          • JDB says:
            28 Jan28 January 14:52

            @LittleNick you are right that unfortunately governments are generally hopeless at allocating money or resources and that is the case around the world, irrespective of left/right. There are too many layers of bureaucracy, vested interests, political expediency etc. Somewhere small and tightly controlled like Singapore would be a notable exception.

          • Rob says:
            28 Jan28 January 23:28

            Please tell us how the NHS can do better? Give one example where you can tick all the boxes and adhere to all the criteria demanded.

          • Rhys says:
            29 Jan29 January 05:51

            Surely as someone in the NHS you know it can be improved….literally everyone I know who works in the NHS is continually griping about how crap it is run!

        • Mohammed Bikuz says:
          29 Jan29 January 03:05

          Typical neoliberal pabulum, pick yourself up by the boots etc., trickle-down economics and all the other discredited nonsense! Plus totally factually wrong about smokers/drinkers costing the community, since tobacco/alcohol are massively taxed! Meaning these people prepay for their care, and most will die before needing it…the current third-world state of the UK isn’t new (have noticed for decades the piles of rubbish everywhere and sad high streets with boarded up shops etc), but has been made worse by political choices, like austerity and Brexit, decided by and for a small minority of privileged people who’ll then blame it all on the poor, the ‘lazy’, the foreign etc.

        • George K says:
          29 Jan29 January 12:45

          ‘I’ve been shot in the leg, but I can still walk, Sarge!’ – Brexit 2023

          Of course it’s the state’s job to provide education! And healthcare, and social care. Not sure when it became acceptable to say that people must claim responsibility for their own education, healthcare etc and not expect the state to do so. Is this part of the ‘Blitz spirit’?

          You mention the NHS – over the past 12 years, the Tories have critically underfunded the NHS. There’re no two ways about it. How can you underfund something and expect it to carry on working as it did before? You can’t. But you seem to think that you can starve an institution to death and then accuse it of mismanagement. Fine. Let me do that to your business and see what you have to say about it.

          Here’s something you can read

          https://www.ft.com/content/b2154c20-c9d0-4209-9a47-95d114d31f2b

          I won’t go into your education argument. You may have noticed teachers are about to strike over another area that the government has taken turns in starving to death.

        • Londonsteve says:
          29 Jan29 January 15:01

          Err, I don’t own property because I’ve never been able to afford to buy somewhere, due to the historically elevated cost of living my pension is also quite insufficient to ensure a good retirement, if I don’t die before I reach 68. If my parents suffer protracted ill health requiring specialist care that consumes the value of the family home, I’ll probably be in rented accommodation until I die, unable to build up a decent pension fund and will have to burden the state in old age with pension credits (if they even still exist). Travelling abroad is not a minority sport, not when you can get a flight for £25 virtually anywhere in Europe. To be honest, getting off this sceptic island and clearing my head is virtually the only thing keeping me sane. Hence my interest in travel, frequent flyer miles and maximising opportunities while keeping cash spend as low as I can. I strongly suspect our economic realities are vastly different, which is of course fine and the natural order of things, but your ‘advice’ is unsuitable and misplaced.

      • DaveJ says:
        28 Jan28 January 13:37

        And we’re giving away weapons to a government that this week admitted to being corrupt. Go figure as the yanks say

        • His Holyness says:
          28 Jan28 January 15:19

          It’s always been corrupt. Moldova or Ukraine would be head to head for the prize of biggest democratic failures post-1991.

          • WaynedP says:
            28 Jan28 January 17:49

            A country in which the majority of citizens, who are trying to make a decent living, labour under the scourge of egregious corruption practised by a privileged minority does not deserve or warrant being invaded by an ideologically driven aggressor.

            The current Ukrainian leadership is popular now for being plucky and resilient, but was popular before the war for its public anti-corruption commitments.

            I believe the potentially bigger problem in a post-war Ukraine is likely to be less a question of resurgent corruption than of resurgent Nationalism.

            Russia has attacked the splinter of ultranationalism in Ukraine’s eye, blindly ignoring the beam in its own, and even with Putin permanently removed and a suitably contrite Russia, it’s depressingly easy to recognise how the precarious geopolitical realities are likely to result in populist pressure supporting further ultranationalism in both countries again in future.

          • His Holyness says:
            28 Jan28 January 20:47

            Zelensky wasn’t popular once people saw he could do nothing about corruption. The promises over ending the war in The Donbas were quickly null and void once Mr Z saw the far-right Nationalists would not accept a peace agreement. From acting to reality.
            Just like Russia (and clearly shown in Servant of the People) you’re only in power if the Oligarch’s and the power players consent to it. That’s why removing Putin changes very little, in fact, it could get much worse.

      • Rob says:
        28 Jan28 January 23:22

        Try South Hertfordshire. There is so much money here it’s a joke. Even in what is considered the parts everyone is driving land rovers or jaguars. Literally money to burn.

        • Gordon says:
          29 Jan29 January 09:32

          People do not have as much money to burn as you might think, The majority of theses high end cars are on either PCP contract, Finance, Or Leased, I on the other hand buy my commercial vehicle every three years once the warranty runs out, Outright no finance etc and commercial vehicles are not cheap, But you would not look at me twice in my van, It’s not all it seems.

        • Londonsteve says:
          29 Jan29 January 15:07

          You’ve neatly encapsulated one of the problems with the UK. Vast (excessive, even?) private wealth for a sizeable section of society, a decaying public sphere, low and declining living standards for majority working people and an exponentially growing precariat. Economically and demographically the UK is increasingly resembling a developing country, like Brazil.

    • Rob says:
      28 Jan28 January 23:12

      Remainer?
      I can tell you in private health care (teleradiology) we are doing very well and providing excellent service to our “customers”

  • Nick says:
    28 Jan28 January 09:56

    I won’t say I told you so…I just feel sad for the staff and creditors in a sitiation that was inevitable, IMHO!

  • Jonathan says:
    28 Jan28 January 10:23

    This half echoes when Monarch Airlines went bust, people turning up at the airport ready to catch their flight, then being told by text message or the press that the airline they booked to fly with has become the next victim to its cash flow…

  • Grant says:
    28 Jan28 January 11:02

    Personal experience suggests that they were wholly uncompetitive on fares. When EZY are running the same route and have far better reliability it’s easy to see why customers went elsewhere.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:
    28 Jan28 January 11:25

    They were an awful airline, I suspect being hammered by EU 261 claims and low load factors. They certainly weren’t cheap to buy tickets!

  • Chris L says:
    28 Jan28 January 11:49

    LNER are accepting cancelled Flybe tickets on their services today and tomorrow.
    https://twitter.com/lner/status/1619286081299705857?s=61&t=VO8Nf-qDKQvGiC1majwIvg

    • Paul says:
      28 Jan28 January 12:00

      Amazing what can be done well state owned LNER.

      • Geoff says:
        28 Jan28 January 12:26

        Oh come on, it is a Saturday. The trains will be half full at best. Think of all those soggy sandwiches and watery coffees they will be able to sell on! A good move by LNER, I agree. But maybe you should be a bit more cynical. Had it been Tuesday or Thursday then no chance, ‘cos the overpaid LNER drivers are striking again…

        • BlueThroughCrimp says:
          28 Jan28 January 13:14

          Leisure travel is higher than pre-covid.
          Weekends are busier than before, but don’t let that get in the way of your rant.

        • strickers says:
          28 Jan28 January 15:15

          Really? LNER did it last time FlyBe went bust too, they didn’t have to but they did. Yea, maybe a marketing gimmick, maybe it’s cynical, but for pities sake let’s stop finding the negativity in everything. Let’s call it a really nice gesture from LNER that might actually get some people where they need to be this weekend.

        • Eob says:
          28 Jan28 January 23:32

          How can you say they are overpaid?

        • Rob says:
          28 Jan28 January 23:33

          How can you say they are overpaid?

          • Geoff says:
            29 Jan29 January 08:44

            I start by saying the word ‘over’ and then quickly follow it by saying the word ‘paid’.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!