The regional airline Flybe has ceased trading and cancelled all its scheduled flights, leaving passengers stranded and hundreds of crew without jobs.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that the company had gone into administration and urged those with booked Flybe flights not to travel to airports.
“Flybe customers who still need to travel will need to make their own alternative travel arrangements via other airlines, rail or coach operators,” it said.
A statement on the airline’s website said it had ceased trading and told any passengers expecting to travel with it not to go to the airport.
The airline said David Pike and Mike Pink from Interpath Advisory had been appointed joint administrators and confirmed that all flights to and from the UK were cancelled and would not be rescheduled.
The administrators said that 277 of Flybe’s 321 staff have been made redundant, while the remaining 44 would be retained.
Flybe was not able to arrange alternative flights for passengers, it said, and those with flights booked via an intermediary were advised to contact the relevant airline or booking agent.
The airline operated scheduled services on 21 routes from Belfast City, Birmingham and Heathrow to airports across the UK and to Amsterdam and Geneva.
The news immediately sparked panic on social media, with many passengers asking if they would be receiving refunds and a number of Flybe staff announcing they were now looking for work.
One Flybe operations controller said on Twitter: “Thoughts with all my colleagues today, we had a really good team working behind the scenes. Sadly it didn’t work out. Now open to other opportunities.”
Ryanair moved swiftly to recruit staff affected by the news, setting up a fast-track recruitment process for Flybe employees and saying it would hold a recruitment event for them at Birmingham airport on 2 February.
One passenger expecting to take a Flybe service on Saturday morning was Chris Donnelly, who was scheduled to fly from Belfast City to Heathrow.
He received an email from Flybe at 03:07 which said his flight had been cancelled and that the company had gone into administration, advising passengers not to travel to the airport.
Donnelly, a school principal and political commentator, was on his way to the airport when he saw the email.
Matthew Hall, the chief executive of Belfast City airport, which has 138 Flybe employees, the highest number in the UK, said his thoughts were with the firm’s employees and passengers.
He said that anyone booked on to Flybe flights should not travel to the airport, and that eight of its 10 Flybe routes were covered by other providers.
Many other passengers expressed anger at having been able to make bookings with the airline as late as Friday night, just hours before the announcement, and asked how they could obtain a refund.
Flybe has said it would be able to help passengers arrange alternative flights, referring all affected passengers to the CAA for advice and information.
Travel providers including London North Eastern Railway (LNER) have said that on 28 and 29 January, Flybe customers with cancelled flights can travel on any LNER service to their destination for free by presenting their airline ticket.
The CAA consumer director, Paul Smith, said: “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.
Customers should “almost certainly” get their money back from their card issuer or travel agent, the Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder said.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Of course finding alternative flights is going to be a problem, and they are going to be more expensive than the ones they originally bought with Flybe.”
He said while there had been a recent surge in demand for air travel, Flybe had “fairly thin pickings” of travel routes when it returned to operation and had struggled with passenger loads on its flights.
Flybe previously announced it would cease trading in March 2020, citing the coronavirus pandemic as a contributory factor.
The company was rescued after being bought by Thyme Opco, a firm linked to the US hedge fund Cyrus Capital and subsequently renamed Flybe Limited.
The airline resumed operations in April 2022 with a plan to run up to 530 flights a week across 23 routes.
The high court had appointed joint administrators for Flybe Limited.
