Airline Flybe floats on the stock exchange

Company directors agreed to the stock market flotation in a bid to raise £60m in new shares.

The regional airline priced shares at 295p in conditional dealings valuing the company at £215 million.

The price was at the lower end of the expected range, but the stock opened higher at 320p before easing back 1.5p to 318.5p.

Flybe, which has its biggest base in the UK at Southampton, said that it will use half of the cash raised towards a fleet of new aircraft and the rest to support growth plans, including overseas takeovers.

Larger shareholders are not expected to sell their interests in the airline. They include the founding Walker family, who own 70 per cent of shares, and British Airways, which holds 15 per cent.

Staff own eight per cent of the shares.

The Exeter-based carrier employs more than 2,900 people and operates 215 routes across Europe, flying seven million passengers a year.

Flybe was one of only a few European airlines to report profits since the financial crisis It posted pre-tax profits of £6.8m in the year to March 31 on sales of £570.5m, down from £12.8m the previous year.

Official trading on the London Stock Exchange starts next Wednesday under the ticker symbol FLYB.LN.

Flybe's start to life as a public company comes as Pilots' union, the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa), threatened strikes on Tuesday saying a pay claim submitted to Flybe in February had been ignored, as had concerns over the way the airline organises its flying schedules.