UK regional airline Flybmi ceases operations

LONDON: British regional airline Flybmi has cancelled all its flights and filed for administration, the airline has announced. The company said it had been badly affected by rises in fuel and carbon costs and uncertainty over Brexit.

The East Midlands-based airline, which has 376 staff, operates 17 planes flying to 25 European cities. Affected passengers have been told to contact their travel agents or insurance and credit card companies. A Flybmi spokesman said: "It is with a heavy heart that we have made this unavoidable announcement. "The airline has faced several difficulties, including recent spikes in fuel and carbon costs, the latter arising from the EU's recent decision to exclude UK airlines from full participation in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

"Current trading and future prospects have also been seriously affected by the uncertainty created by the Brexit process, which has led to our inability to secure valuable flying contracts in Europe." The Civil Aviation Authority also published advice for travellers.

Rory Boland, travel editor for consumer body Which?, said: "Some customers have claimed that tickets were being sold in the hours before the airline went bust, knowing full well those tickets would never be honoured, and passengers will rightly be outraged if this is proved to be the case." One of Flybmi's domestic routes, linking Derry and Stansted, was subsidised by the government to boost trade and travel between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Several people use the flights for work and Derry Strabane Council said it was in emergency talks with the Department of Transport to seek a replacement airline on that route. Richard Edwards, from West Sussex, on a skiing holiday in Austria with his wife and three children, told how they had experienced problems with their scheduled flight out to Munich.

He said: "We had gone through security at Bristol Airport when there was an announcement saying our flight had been cancelled. "They laid on taxis to Heathrow and booked us on a Lufthansa flight to Munich. "I don't know how we will get back yet. I'm not confident Flybmi will be able to sort it."