Flybe cancels dozens of flights

Regional airline Flybe canceled dozens of flights Wednesday morning for "operational reasons".

Five flights from Belfast City Airport and four from Birmingham are involved, as well as departures from Southampton, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Newcastle.

Most flights are in the UK.

The airline said that she wanted to "sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused".

"All affected customers were informed by email that they could change their booking for a replacement flight or request a full refund," the company said in a statement.

The company has recently adopted its summer schedule. She did not respond to BBC inquiries as to whether this change contributed to cancellations and delays.

Sue Piercey, who lives in Bradford, told the BBC that her flight from Leeds to Belfast was canceled today.

"We received a short e-mail at 19:00 last night, followed by an even shorter text," she said. "No other flight option has been proposed."

Flybe has to make three subsequent flights between Leeds and Belfast today, and none have been offered to Ms. Piercey, she said.

"Our holidays are totally gone, and I hope my insurance company will be able to help me," she said, describing herself as "very bored today."

Customers also expressed frustration on social media.

On Monday, Flybe pbadengers on a new road ended up with a six-hour bus ride when their plane failed.

The 18:40 service from Newquay to Heathrow was unable to take off on Sunday because of a "technical problem".

The Cornwall Airport in Newquay told pbadengers that they were being offered "a new flight or ground travel reservation to London Heathrow".

Flybe was bought at the beginning of the year as part of a rescue contract due to poor financial results.

Connect Airways, a consortium led by Virgin Atlantic by Richard Branson, paid £ 2.8m for Flybe's badets and operations.

Aggressive expansion

The regional airline based in Exeter itself went on sale last November after announcing a profit the previous month.

Virgin, Stobart Air and Cyrus Capital created Connect Airways in December.

Flybe fell into trouble in 2017 after what was considered an overly aggressive expansion strategy. The company recorded a loss of approximately £ 20 million during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.

In January, an employee was led to send an email accusing the company's executives of ruining a profitable business.

The employee, an experienced pilot, sent the email to Flybe Managing Director Christine Urmieres-Widener.

"Congratulations, in two years at Flybe, you and your incompetent cohorts managed to completely destroy a viable airline that was making money when you took over," he wrote.

The BBC understands that the airline has suspended the pilot.

Flybe told the BBC that "an individual was suspended on January 17, 2019 in accordance with the company's policy".

Have your travel plans been affected by Flybe cancellations? Get in touch by email [email protected]

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