Flybmi (formerly BMI Regional), a regional airline based at East Midlands Airport, announced on February 16, 2019, that it would cease operations with immediate effect the following day. Several companies have since expressed interests in the airline’s assets.
Following the announcement of Flybmi bankruptcy, its sister airline Loganair said it would take over at least five routes from Aberdeen, Scotland and Newcastle, England. Some pilots, flight attendants and even maintenance technicians could be recruited as Loganair operates regional Embraer jets like Flybmi.
Another regional airline, Danish Air Transport (DAT), announced it would take over the route between Esbjerg and Aberdeen in Scotland.
Ryanair voiced its interests into Flybmi employees, particularly pilots, engineers and support employees based in East Midlands Airport. According to Ryanair director of operations Peter Bellew, Flybmi former employees were met by recruiters from the Irish LCC on February 18, 2019.
Ryanair is accepting applications from flybmi staff tonight on recruitment@ryanair.com. Video gives some more details. Early start dates for engineering, pilots and specialist roles. We have will have recruitment staff at East Midlands airport on Monday. pic.twitter.com/4XsLXgNGnA
— Peter Bellew (@peterbellew) February 16, 2019
Like several European airlines that went into bankruptcy these past months (Germania in February 2019, Primera Air, SkyWork Airlines, NextJet AB, etc. in 2018), Flybmi partly blamed rises in fuel and carbon costs for its demise. But Brexit was also an influential element, according to Flybmi. “The uncertainties created by the Brexit process have also had a significant impact on current trade and future prospects,” said the airline in its press release, adding that it “has prevented us from securing valuable flight contracts in Europe and has created a lack of confidence in bmi to continue flying between European destinations.”
Flybmi, founded in 1938, was operating a fleet of three Embraer ERJ-135 and fourteen ERJ-145 regional aircraft, and was serving 25 European cities. Since August 2015, it was part of Airline Investments Limited, along with Loganair.
