Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of Covid, Flybe – the British domestic airline – is to start services again next month. It sounds like a huge vote of confidence in the future of flying and a boon for travellers in the UK. But how much of a gamble is the re-launch and what does it mean for consumers?

The original Flybe, which was based in Exeter, failed just over two years ago with the loss of 2,000 jobs. It meant the end of a network of regional flights within the UK and several short routes across the Channel, notably to northern France. It was one of the first commercial victims of the pandemic, although it was already in financial trouble before the anxiety over coronavirus hit bookings during February and March 2020. 

The brand was bought from the receiver by an investor later that year and now it is being revived. The new airline (flybe.com) will be based at Birmingham and Belfast City airports and will use the same kind of small, relatively slow, turbo-prop planes, seating up to 90, as the original Flybe. Some 23 new routes are being launched in phases, beginning on April 13 with Birmingham to Belfast City and eventually expanding to a timetable of some 530 domestic and international flights each week. 

Many of the new services are out of Belfast, which will have a much enhanced network to UK regional airports – some 11 routes in all are planned from Northern Ireland by the end of the summer. Birmingham will get new services to Edinburgh and Glasgow – although these, like many of the new Flybe routes, are already served by another airline (in this case, EasyJet). Perhaps the most interesting offerings for holidaymakers are the flights from Birmingham, East Midlands and Heathrow to Amsterdam, as well as some services to France in July and August. These operate from Birmingham to Avignon and Brest, and from Southampton to Avignon and Toulon.

Overall then, the new Flybe represents a modest increase in choice and variety, but what about fares? Competition with other airlines will no doubt help keep downward pressure on prices. Launch fares are being pitched low, starting at £29.99 for a single flight and the Government’s intention to halve Air Passenger Duty for domestic flights (down to £6.50 each way) from 2023 will help with the downward pressure next year. Fares will be much higher on some services, however. A return from Southampton to Toulon with a checked bag is currently £269.

There are also risks both for Flybe and its customers. In some ways this is a bold time to be re-launching an airline which was failing to sustain profitability even before the pandemic. Fuel prices have soared. There is competition – either direct or indirect – from powerful opposition, including EasyJet, Ryanair and BA. With the exception of the Belfast routes, Flybe has also to compete against the railways, both in Britain and against Eurostar services to both Amsterdam and Avignon.

The risk for consumers lies in what happens if the venture fails. The original collapse of Flybe in 2020 was a reminder that passengers still have no automatic financial protection when a scheduled airline goes out of business leaving them with unused tickets that they have already paid for. The failure followed a succession of major airline collapses between late 2017 and 2020 – which included Monarch, Air Berlin, Thomas Cook, Flybmi and Wow – as a result of which thousands of passengers lost money.

Just before Christmas 2019 – after decades of dithering – the Government promised to introduce legislation to deal with the problem. Given the pandemic, it is understandable that nothing substantial has happened since. That excuse has lapsed and the problem needs to be sorted now. 

In the meantime, let’s hope that the reborn Flybe is a success. But remember, whenever you book a flight with any scheduled airline you either need to protect your money by paying with a credit card (assuming the ticket is more than £100) or taking out insurance which covers financial collapses.

Five more airlines to look out for in 2022

Flyr

Though this Norwegian airline launched in summer 2021, focusing first on domestic services and then Med favourites (Nice, Alicante, Málaga), its first UK route – Oslo–Edinburgh – will begin in April. An unusual feature is its age-specific discount for customers aged 16-29. 

Norse Atlantic 

The latest low-cost airline to have a stab at transatlantic services, Norse will confirm its network in April, with the first flights planned for June. Services from Oslo to North America will launch first, but routes from the UK to the US are expected to follow. Smaller airports will be on the menu, including Fort Lauderdale, New York Stewart and Ontario in California; these connections were previously popular with rival carrier Norwegian (indeed, senior figures from Norwegian have been involved in the launch of Norse). 

Bamboo Airways 

This Vietnamese carrier debuted in 2018, but has been steadily growing its international route map, and among its newest connections is a service from Heathrow to Hanoi. The first flight took off on March 23, and the service is running three times a week. Despite its cut-price status (one-way tickets start at around £320), Bamboo includes checked luggage within its economy fares, as well as an in-flight meal on the 12-and-a-half-hour London–Vietnam journey.  

PLAY

A short layover in Iceland will feature on UK–US flights with PLAY, which will see its inaugural transatlantic service, from Stansted to Baltimore, take off on April 20. Fares for this route were put on sale in December for as little as £139 one-way. The stop in Iceland may be a turnoff for some, but it’s only 1 hour 25 minutes for the flight to Baltimore and 1 hour 50 minutes for another initial US route, Stansted–Boston. 

Wizz Air Abu Dhabi

With Wizz Air now flying from London to Abu Dhabi, you can choose to extend your low-cost journey thanks to its sister airline, which celebrated its maiden flight in January 2021. Expansion continues apace: Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan) and Yerevan (Armenia) were among the additions to its network in February; Mattala (Sri Lanka) will join in March. 

By Emma Featherstone