At a time when established airlines are in deep difficulty and some have been forced into liquidation or merger, one small green shoot is pushing up through the ground: Britain’s Flybe has applied for a new operating license.
No date is set for action on the license request by Flybe’s new owner, Thyme Opco, but its fans are hoping it will be soon. Flybe, once the largest independent regional airline in Europe, served many smaller British airports, connecting them to hubs where passengers could connect to other airlines’ long-distance routes.
Thyme Opco’s is not the first attempt to salvage that network; before its late 2019 collapse, it had been bought by a consortium including Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Aviation and U.S. venture capital firms.
