Yahoo Finance Flybmi's collapse leaves 10,500 people facing travel chaos over just the next week
The collapse of regional airline Flybmi has left 10,500 passengers scrambling to rebook seats over the next week, administrators have confirmed.
Regional airline Flybmi filed for administration on Saturday, citing higher fuel prices and Brexit uncertainty. Accountants BDO announced on Monday that they have been appointed as administrators for the collapsed airline.
BDO said that Flybmi was scheduled to operate 76 flights on Monday with a total of 2,000 seats booked. The airline was due to fly 10,500 passengers on 440 flights across the next seven days. All flights have been cancelled.
BDO is advising customers who had bookings with Flybmi to contact their card issuers in order to get a refund for flights. Customers who booked through outside websites or travel agents should contact the third party who they booked with.
The collapse of the airline has left some passengers stranded overseas. Travellers in this situation are being advised to seek a refund and rebook with another airline rather than rely on any repatriation efforts, similarly to what happened with the collapse of Monarch Airlines in 2017.
Tony Nygate, a BDO business restructuring partner, said in a statement: “Customers can find information on the Flybmi website regarding the steps they need to take to apply for a refund from their payment provider or travel company.”
BDO also confirmed in a statement that the “majority of Flybmi’s 376 employees across the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Belgium have regrettably been made redundant.”
“We are also working with the Company’s employees to provide them with guidance on how to make a claim for monies which may be due to them. In addition, we are contacting suppliers to explain how to apply for monies owed to them,” Nygate said.
Flybmi is the latest of several airlines to collapse since 2017 as firms complain about rising fuel costs and concerns about Brexit.
In October 2017, Monarch became the biggest ever British airline to collapse when it went into administration.
One year later, in October 2018, the Danish airline Primera Air ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy. Days later Cobalt, a Cypriot airline, announced its collapse as it also cancelled all flights and operations.
Germania, the German airline, filed for insolvency on 4 February of this year, blaming “unforeseeable events such as massive increases in fuel prices last summer.”
Flybmi operated 17 aircrafts on routes to 25 cities across Europe. It flew 522,000 passengers on 29,000 flights in 2018.
