Carrier’s failure is a huge crisis for NI, says actor Lawson
CORONATION Street actor Charlie Lawson has expressed his anger at the collapse of Flybe and revealed that he has lost six flights over the next two months.
The Enniskillen-born TV star posted a video on Twitter and said the news could spark a “huge crisis” for Northern Ireland. The 60-year-old actor said he had been inspired to address the issue after hearing BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Nicky Campbell report the news.
“First of all, condolences to everyone from Flybe. It is terrible news,” Mr Lawson said.
“I was listening to 5 Live earlier on and you would be forgiven for thinking that, as much as I admire you Nicky, that England was the only place that was going to be affected by this Flybe disaster. I would have to say, you can get the bus and you can get the train, or whatever.
“However, if you are in Northern Ireland this is an extremely bitter blow.”
Earlier, BBC presenter Stephen Nolan revealed that he lost a large amount of money in the 2019 Flybe takeover.
While discussing the collapse of the troubled airline during his BBC Radio Ulster show yesterday, the presenter revealed he had owned shares in the company until its takeover.
“I was a shareholder in Flybe, I lost money last year, I lost quite a lot of money,” Mr Nolan said.
Mr Nolan earned between £325,000 and £329,999 in 2018/19 from the BBC, down from just over £400,000 the previous year.
In January 2019, Flybe was subject to a 1p-a-share takeover from Connect Airways, a consortium made up of Virgin, the Stobart Group and Cyrus Capital.
The takeover was opposed by Flybe’s biggest shareholders, Hosking Partners.
It came just months after a 40p-a-share merger with Stobart was vetoed.
Investors lost thousands, but the airline said accepting the deal was the only way of ensuring Flybe could survive.