Flybe relaunches – but is there turbulence ahead?

While new routes and a wider choice of UK hubs are good news for fliers, competition will be fierce, says Nick Trend

Rising like a phoenix from the Covid ashes, Flybe – the British domestic airline – is to start services again next month. It sounds like a huge vote of confidence in the future of flying and a boon for travellers in the UK, but how much of a gamble is the relaunch and what does it mean for consumers?

The original Flybe, based in Exeter, failed just over two years ago with the loss of 2,000 jobs. It meant the end of a network of regional flights within the UK and several short routes across the Channel, notably to northern France. It was one of the first commercial victims of the pandemic, although it was already in financial trouble before the anxiety over coronavirus hit bookings during February and March 2020.

The brand was bought from the receiver by an investor later that year and is now being revived. The new airline (flybe.com) will be based at Birmingham and Belfast City airports and will use the same kind of small, relatively slow turbo-prop planes, seating up to 90, as the original Flybe. Some 23 new routes are being launched in phases, starting on April 13 with Birmingham to Belfast City and expanding to a timetable of 530 domestic and international flights each week.

Many of the new services are out of Belfast, which will have a much enhanced network to UK regional airports – 11 routes are planned from Northern Ireland by the end of summer. Birmingham will get new ser

If you have had a problem with your holiday or travel arrangements, contact our troubleshooter, Gill Charlton, or our consumer expert,

Nick Trend, at the email address below.

We also have more than 150 destination experts all over the world who can help with suggestions for great places to stay, to eat and to visit. Please email asktheexperts @telegraph.co.uk, giving your full name and, if your query is about a dispute with a travel company, your address, telephone number and any booking reference. We regret that we cannot personally answer all queries, but your email will be acknowledged vices to Edinburgh and Glasgow – though these, like many of the new Flybe routes, are already served by another airline, in this case easyJet. The most interesting offerings for holidaymakers are flights from Birmingham, East Midlands and Heathrow to Amsterdam, plus services to France in July and August. These operate from Birmingham to Avignon and Brest, and from Southampton to Avignon and Toulon.

This represents a modest increase in choice and variety, but what about fares? Competition with other airlines will help keep downward pressure on prices. Launch fares are being pitched low, starting at £29.99 for a single flight and the Government’s intention to halve Air Passenger Duty for domestic flights (down to £6.50 each way) from 2023 will help next year. Fares will be much higher on some services, though. A return from Southampton to Toulon with a checked-in bag is currently £269.

There are also risks for Flybe and its customers. It’s a bold time to be relaunching an airline that was failing to sustain profitability even before the pandemic. Fuel prices have soared. There is competition from powerful opposition, including easyJet, Ryanair and BA. With the exception of the Belfast routes, Flybe also has to compete with the railways, both in Britain and Eurostar services to Amsterdam and Avignon.

The risk for consumers lies in what happens if the venture fails. The collapse of Flybe in 2020 was a reminder that passengers still have no automatic financial protection when a scheduled airline goes bust, leaving them with unused tickets that they have already paid for. The failure followed a succession of major airline collapses between late 2017 and 2020, which included Monarch, Air Berlin, Thomas Cook, Flybmi and Wow, as a result of which thousands of passengers lost money.

Just before Christmas 2019 – after decades of dithering – the Government promised legislation to deal with the issue. With the pandemic, it is understandable that nothing substantial has happened since. That excuse has lapsed and the problem must be sorted now.

In the meantime, let’s hope that the reborn Flybe is a success. But remember, whenever you book a flight with any scheduled airline you either need to protect your money by paying with a credit card (assuming the ticket is more than £100) or by taking out insurance that covers financial collapses.

Ready for take-off: 23 new routes have been planned