The weekend news in the UK picked over the demise of British Midland Regional Limited, the East Midlands-based airline operating as flybmi that entered administration on February 16. Although a small regional airline – Flybmi operates 17 regional jet aircraft on routes to 25 European cities – the demise of a further European airline that blamed high fuel costs and Brexit for its ultimate end filled column inches about the fragility of the industry and this morning more again with passengers stranded abroad.
In a statement, flybmi announced its entrance into administration due to several difficulties, namely: “recent spikes in fuel and carbon costs” as well as the damage to its future trading prospects created by “Brexit uncertainty”.
A spike in carbon costs was blamed on the EU’s recent decision to exclude UK airlines from full participation in the Emissions Trading Scheme, which flybmi says has “undermined efforts to move the airline into profit”.
Regarding Brexit, the uncertainty of the UK’s future relationship with the EU has caused the airline partners to delay confirming future contracts. “Current trading and future prospects have also been seriously affected by the uncertainty created by the Brexit process, which has led to our inability to secure valuable flying contracts in Europe and lack of confidence around bmi’s ability to continue flying between destinations in Europe,” reads the statement.
Bmi Regional employed a total of 376 employees based in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Belgium. The airline carried 522,000 passengers on 29,000 flights in 2018.
Regional UK airline Loganair has announced that it will take over some services provided by flybmi, including flights from Aberdeen to Bristol, Oslo and Esbjerg from March 4. It will also operate flights between Newcastle to Brussels and Newcastle to Stavanger in Norway. The airline has expressed interest in the route between City of Derry airport and London Stansted.