United Kingdom Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed an earlier decision of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) revoking flybe. (2002)'s operating licence (OL) thus preventing its successor, flybe. (Birmingham, GB), from regaining access to its legacy London Heathrow slots, the Daily Telegraph has reported.
Shapps confirmed the ruling on June 3, the last day of the conditional validity of flybe.'s slots.
The CAA revoked flybe.'s OL in mid-March 2021, just over a year after the British regional specialist ceased all operations. The decision dealt a heavy blow to Cyrus Capital, a former minority shareholder, which, in October 2020, announced its decision to take over flybe. and revive it. However, as under UK law only a licenced airline can hold slots, the revocation of flybe.'s OL therefore meant the dormant carrier would lose all of its legacy slots, which had been temporarily returned to British Airways after its collapse but which would have been returned to flybe. if it had restarted using the same OL.
Despite the blow, Cyrus Capital's investment vehicle Thyme Opco has not abandoned plans to acquire and relaunch flybe. In April 2021, it obtained a new OL and was subsequently renamed as Flybe Limited. Shortly afterwards, it secured new slots at Heathrow for limited services to Aberdeen Dyce and Edinburgh, previously held by British Airways, which it will replace on the routes. While short of flybe.'s pre-collapse holdings, these slots give flybe. (2021) a foothold at Britain's largest hub.
Had it regained access to its legacy slots, flybe. would have been able to sell them for an expected price tag of GBP10 million pounds (USD14.2 million), although their pre-pandemic value was believed to be seven times higher.
flybe. (2021) has so far registered a single DHC-8-Q400 in the UK, G-CLXC (msn 4014), which remains parked at Exeter airport.
