EMCC European Monitoring Centre on Change

The coronavirus outbreak claimed a major European corporate victim on March 5 with the collapse of airline Flybe. The company which services mainly regional routes in the UK stopped trading overnight and entered administration. More than 2,000 jobs are directly at risk with additional job losses likely in some of the regional airports that depend on Flybe for much of their passenger traffic – Belfast City Airport, Southampton and its home base, Exeter.

• Factsheet: Flybe

Already ailing financially in recent years, Flybe was taken over in 2019 by Connect Airways – a consortium including Virgin Atlantic - but continued to operate at a loss. An emergency pledge of government aid required to sustain operations in January 2020 was criticised on state aid grounds by competitors including Ryanair and British Airways. It was in any case insufficient to save the airline. Weakened demand for air travel in recent weeks proved the final straw. Travel and tourism related companies are on the front line of economic disruption caused by the virus – even if it is becoming clearer each day that supply chains in all sectors are compromised and that even relatively well-developed public health systems do not have the resources to deal with the effects of a pandemic.

• The Guardian: Flybe saved after ministers and investors seal rescue deal