Loganair has acted immediately to expand its route network after the airline Flybe collapsed into administration, suspending all services overnight, following in the steps of its predecessor of the same name which failed in March 2020, with more than 2,000 job losses.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) made the official announcement that the company had gone into administration and urged those with booked Flybe flights not to travel to airports.
Three early Flybe flights from Belfast, two from Birmingham and two from Amsterdam were still showing as ‘scheduled on time’ on Flybe’s online flight status live tracker at 5am.
But the CAA urged ticket-holders to instead check its website for the latest information…and this states:
"Flybe has now ceased trading and all flights from and to the UK operated by Flybe have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.
“Please note that Flybe is unfortunately not able to arrange alternative flights for passengers.”
A CAA spokesperson said: “Flybe customers who still need to travel, will need to make their own alternative travel arrangements via other airlines, rail or coach operators.”
A statement from Scotland's airline, Loganair said: "The collapse once more of Flybe is a sad day for the industry, adversely impacting their staff, who will lose their jobs, and the airline’s customers, who now face significant disruption.
"Loganair will relaunch the Manchester to Newquay service from 10 February and would encourage customers to book as early as possible to avoid any disappointment.
"In the meantime, Loganair remains firmly committed to serving its customers and connecting the UK regions, just as we have done throughout the last 60 years."
Even at 11.30am today, Cornwall Airport Newquay had failed to get to grips with the collapse. One Flybe service showed as cancelled; but another showed an open check-in! Flybe made up about 2/3rds of the airport's services today.
In September 2022, Logaair said it would end operations at Cornwall Airport Newquay this winter. Daily services to Manchester and onwards to Aberdeen, together with non-stop flights to Edinburgh and Newcastle, were to be completely suspended between November 2022 and March 2023. In all, almost 300 flights scheduled to Newquay over the winter season were withdrawn from the airline’s schedule.
Summer routes linking Newquay with Teesside and onwards to Inverness would not return in 2023, a spokesperson for Loganair said then.
“It’s with a heavy heart that we’ve taken the decision to withdraw our entire winter Newquay programme and to curtail our Summer 2023 plans too.
"Despite all of the challenges that the pandemic has delivered, we’ve worked incredibly hard over the last two years to build up our presence at Cornwall Airport Newquay. We’re most disappointed that short-sighted and short-term decisions by the airport’s management to incentivise unsustainable operations by other airlines leave no prospect of winter flights remaining viable, particularly against a backdrop of high fuel prices and rising inflation."
