We all woke up to the news this morning that the UK regional airline Flybe has ceased operations. This is another blow for the UK Aviation industry, especially regional airports across the United Kingdom. We have many members here at UK virtual who were employed by Flybe, our thoughts go out to all of them at this difficult time.
Flybe at UK virtual
UK virtual prides itself in providing up to date airlines and routes across the world for our members to enjoy. In the past airlines like Monarch, Thomas Cook, Air Berlin, Wow Air have been removed from the database instantly as other airlines provided the routes or similar. In the case of Flybe they offered a massive domestic market to which they had not competition from other airlines.
I have been working through the evening and this morning re writing the Flybe schedules and have come up with the best solution at this time. Where other airlines operated the same routes, they have now taken over that flight. In the cases where Flybe were the only operators on this route, those schedules remain on the system for now. Any routes that had never been flown in the last 5 years by any members have been removed. Flybe will remain available until I reach it on the #hubproject. It is currently eleven airlines away from being updated. This gives me time to decide what to do with the routes, and explore the options available.
UK virtual with Flybe
Flybe ceasing has not just effected our virtual world, but the real world as well for UK virtual. We had flights booked in March with them for our Amsterdam Supporters club prize, we are in the process of recovering that money. Furthermore we rely on Flybe to get our members to UK virtual meet ups, with Manchester being one of them this summer. With that in mind I will be offering bookings on my EasyJet Staff travel to attend the UK virtual meet up to any members who are joining us in replacement. Bookings will need to be made by the end of this month, and they will be via bases like AMS, BFS or CDG as they dont offer many direct domestic flights. If you wish to do this, please drop me a message.
Flybe Group Flight
We will be conducting a group flight on Friday evening from Manchester to Exeter departing at 8pm live on the Vatsim network. This can be in any aircraft under the flybe callsign, and we would love to see as many members join us as possible.