Questions over whether Flybe will return to Southampton Airport

As previously reported, Thyme Opco has bought Flybe’s business and assets, and plans to resume flights this summer, although on a smaller scale than before.

Southampton Airport bosses have said that new company Flybe Limited will only have one aircraft and have said that the airport is currently facing the "worst crisis the aviation industry has ever encountered".

Having struggled for years, the Exeter-based carrier was pushed into administration in March 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic destroyed large parts of the travel market.

It resulted in the loss of 2,400 jobs across the country.

The firm had bases at UK airports such as Aberdeen, Belfast City, Manchester and Southampton, and flew the most UK domestic routes between airports outside London.

Now, questions are being raised over whether the company will return to the city.

Steve Szalay, operations director at Southampton International Airport, said: “There is no airline that will be able to backfill the gap left by the previous Flybe at Southampton International Airport.

"The collapse saw 85 per cent of our routes vanish overnight at a huge cost to jobs in the area.

“Our understanding is the new company ‘Flybe Limited’ has bought the brand name but only has one aircraft and they themselves say it will be a much smaller operation.

“We are currently facing the worst crisis the aviation industry has ever encountered and trying to recover from Flybe’s collapse more than a year later.

"We will continue to work with our current airline partners to provide the connectivity our region needs to cover from this pandemic.”