Ryanair and EasyJet are keen to snatch Flybe personnel.

Less than a year after relaunching to link neglected rural areas, UK airline Flybe has once again gone into administration.

Early on Saturday morning, the airline made its shutdown announcement, cancelling all of its flights and advising customers not to attempt to fly.

276 people, according to the managers, had their jobs cut. Customers of Flybe who were stuck may purchase cheap tickets on EasyJet, British Airways, and Ryanair.

The airline's administrators informed the Financial Times that there was "a large 'for sale' sign" on the corporation and that the abrupt collapse implies that valuable take-off and landing slots at Heathrow airport will be for sale as part of the insolvency process.

After the previous airline went out of business in March 2020, just as the effects of the coronavirus outbreak started to spread throughout the travel sector, Flybe didn't start flying again until April 2022 under new ownership.

In October 2020, a firm owned by financier Lucien Farrell's hedge fund Cyrus Capital purchased the carrier from the administrator's EY. Cyrus initially contributed cash to Flybe as part of a 2019 rescue effort led by Virgin Atlantic.

The reborn airline had a much smaller fleet of eight leased aircraft and flew on 21 itineraries to 17 locations around the UK and EU.

Analysts and executives from competing industries in the aviation field had questioned the rationality of relaunching Flybe. In the UK, regional air travel has historically been barely profitable, and many of the successful former Flybe routes had already been replaced by competitors.

An executive at administrator Interpath Advisory, David Pike, indicated that the sale of the company would involve slots at Heathrow airport's restricted capacity.

Pike said the slots could only be sold in conjunction with the sale of the firm and would not be available for purchase alone.

"The UK business and/or the Amsterdam business need to be purchased by someone. A significant corporate sale is required”, he added.

86 daily slots were operated by Flybe each week at Heathrow, says a business executive.

Heathrow slots had previously sold for tens of millions of pounds, but Pike warned that they were now more difficult to assess due to the pandemic's financial toll on aviation.

After experiencing "a series of shocks," such as the delayed delivery of planes, Pike said that Flybe had incurred "substantial" losses and a "cash drain". And that "enormous efforts" to raise further funds or sell the company had failed.

A travel industry specialist named Paul Charles stated that the failure of Flybe's relaunch was not unexpected.

In comparison to domestic train services, Zoom, and other airlines, he believed, "There was no significant demand for its routes, and it was revived for the purpose of clinging to Heathrow slots."

Following a successful sale, Pike explained that money may be given back to Flybe's shareholders, but only if its creditors were satisfied.

Crisis Creates Opportunity

The two low-cost carriers advise employees who lost their employment as a result of the liquidation of regional airline Flybe to apply for positions with them.

The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) said that anxious Flybe employees had called in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Martin Chalk, the union's leader, insisted that there were jobs "out there.” Additionally, EasyJet reported having 250 open positions for cabin staff and Ryanair said on its website's careers page that it has openings in all categories, including pilots, engineers, and ground employees.

Furthermore, despite the difficulties of a year ago, Ryanair has already returned to profitability. According to chief executive Micheal O'Leary, there are "no indicators" that the present economic slump will affect the airline industry.

Johan Lundgren, the CEO of EasyJet, told the BBC that his company's revenues also had recovered, cutting down on losses.

With this opportunity, Ryanair and EasyJet both seem to be in a good position to hire more employees and increase their market share.

 

(Ft.com, reuters.com, bbc.co.uk)