British low-cost carrier Flybe has ceased trading for the second time in three years, with all flights from and to the UK cancelled.
The airline's announcement came at short notice, with passengers told on January 28 that they would have to make alternative arrangements if they were due to travel with the Flybe that day.
"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," the carrier said.
Aviation analytics company Cirium said Flybe was scheduled to operate 292 flights, equating to over 22,700 seats, during the week following January 28.
The Flybe website showed insolvency practitioners David John Pike and Michael Robert Pink as having been appointed joint administrators by the High Court "to help manage the affairs, business and property of Flybe Limited".
“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, said Paul Johnson, consumer director at the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The CAA published information on passengers' options for refunds and for arranging alternative travel, listing British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair as carriers offering cut-price fares to passengers needing a replacement flight on January 28 and 29, and adding that LNER was offering free rail travel to those affected. Ryanair spokesman Dara Brady said the carrier was "once again saving the day", announcing "rescue fares" to facilitate affected passengers.
Ryanair and easyJet both said since the collapse of Flybe that they had vacancies for pilots and other crew that Flybe's now-former staff should apply former. "EasyJet is also inviting any Flybe cabin crew and staff to apply for roles with easyJet on our careers website", the UK budget airline said.
Flybe flew mainly between Belfast, Birmingham and Liverpool in the UK and also operated an Amsterdam service. It resumed operations in April 2022, backed by Cyrus Capital, a US hedge fund. after a first collapse two years previously as the world went into lockdown during the first stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
Oliver Richardson, civil aviation officer at trade union Unite, said the government should have introduced measures to allow insolvent airlines to keep flying.
"The government has not learned the lessons from the original collapse of Flybe. It has failed to introduce the Airline Insolvency Bill, which would have allowed Flybe to continue to operate, avoided passengers being stranded and staff losing their jobs in the middle of the night," he said.
Following the failure of Monarch Airlines in 2017, the UK created an Airline Insolvency Review to examine protections for insolvent airlines to ensure passengers could not be left stranded. The review issued a report in 2019 ahead of the failure of Thomas Cook, which called for several proposals including a new Flight Protection Scheme - at a cost of 50p per passenger that would fund repatriation of passengers abroad - and reforms to the UK’s airline insolvency regimes so an airline’s own aircraft can be used to repatriate its passengers should it fail. The airline industry was not supportive of the proposals at the time, noting that increased cost of a protection scheme would eat into airlines already thin margins, which were already being curtailed by the rise in Air Passenger Duty.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said at the time of the report that the scheme was not necessary since other carriers would always step in the bring passengers home - a point that has been proven again with the fall of Flybe and subsequent rescue fares from rivals.
The Airline Insolvency Review was essentially paused during the pandemic period but last year the UK government said that it was considering the recommendations of the review and whether any Bill would be required.