UK regional airline Flybe has cancelled a number of flights today, stranding some passengers and placing others on coaches. In a video message, Flybe CEO, Christine Ourmières-Widener apologised for the cancellations which she said were caused by pilot shortages, seasonality and as a result of ongoing network restructuring. She did highlight the fact that 95% of Flybe flights were operating as per normal. The airline states that it has “identified several mitigation actions and will be issuing further updates throughout the day”.
Flybe was bought by Connect Airways, a consortium led by Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic, paid a total of £2.8m for Flybe’s assets and operations, in a deal that was finalised last month. Flybe ended the financial year 2017 with a £20 million loss, which led to efforts to rescue the carrier and resulted in the acquisition by Connect. This latest highly-publicised issue will have further dented confidence in the brand.