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A once-popular airline founded in Jersey which employed hundreds of islanders and carried many, many more over many decades has finally been wound up – leaving debts in the hundreds of millions behind.
Flybe started life in the 1970s as Jersey European Airways, which itself was the creation of a merger between Intra Airways and Express Air Services.
Intra was synonymous with the ‘glory days’ of tourism in the late 1960s and 1970s, flying former military Dakotas, and Viscounts, to and from the island.
The airline moved its headquarters to Exeter in the 2000s, and its island links gradually weakened, with fewer connections, and a pipeline of Jersey-based pilots and cabin crew coming to an end in 2014.
The airline – which was the principal and often only airline to and from regional airports such as Southampton, Birmingham and Exeter – became a victim of covid six years later in 2020. Blue Islands ended up taking over many of its routes.
Pictured: A statement on Flybe's website at the time of the collapse in 2020.
A new company bearing the airline's name and identity was relaunched in Birmingham - with no routes to the Channel Islands - in 2022.
However, 'Flybe 2.0' was ultimately unsuccessful, with all flights ceasing in January 2023, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and out of pocket. It went up for sale but is now in administration.
New Companies House documents have revealed that the original firm behind Jersey European and Flybe – now known as FBE Realisations 2021 Limited – officially ceased to exist this week, on 18 March.
It followed a UK court hearing which approved the dissolution of the company.
Secured creditors were paid, and nearly £30m went to lenders. More than 2,000 preferential creditors were paid and four redundancy payment service claims were paid, which came to £2.7m. BRAL Trustees was one of the largest unsecured creditors, having been owed £96.5m.
A probe into the actions of directors and shadow directors in the run-up to the administration process concluded that no action should be taken against them.
FOCUS: The final chapter of Jersey-founded Flybe comes to an end
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