It has been reported that Lucien Farrell of Cyrus Capital has stepped down as a director of Thyme Opco, which acquired Flybe from administrators in October 2020 with plans to return to the UK regional airline to service. UK newspaper, The Telegraph, notes that his departure comes after a hearing with the administrator and the Civil Aviation Authority on the subject of the right to certain slots – namely 12 pairs of take-off and landing slots at Heathrow airport. The confusion on slot ownership has been caused by the Covid-19 environment which has suspended rules that say bankrupt airlines should hand back slots to the central slots coordinator and for the CAA to sell on.
The paper states that the meeting adjourned without a final decision on the slots but with the expected that Flybe’s new operating licence application would be granted in the “next two weeks”.