Flybe collapse leads to expensive return to Northern Ireland for football fan

Graeme Hanna, a 35-year-old football writer from Belfast, had flown to Amsterdam on Friday with EasyJet from the International Airport.

After spending Friday night in Amsterdam, it was the following morning on the train to Eindhoven that he checked his emails and learned of Flybe’s collapse and the cancellation of his return flight on Sunday afternoon to City Airport.

Graeme, who was on the trip with his father Eddie to visit friends and take in a football match in Eindhoven, said: “We ended up paying just over £550 for me and my dad to get home with KLM, also to City Airport.

“Soon after the news broke the Sunday EasyJet flight to Aldergrove had quickly sold out. The only alternative was to come home via a GB airport or another night in Amsterdam.”

He added: “We certainly could have done without it. It was a bit of panic and stress initially but once we got sorted, it was a case of enjoying our break.

“We’re dealing with the rest now, hoping the credit card provider and travel insurance can soften the blow as much as possible.”

Their initial Flybe flight had been approximately £140, more than £400 less than what they paid to come home.

Meanwhile the Federation of Small Business in Northern Ireland has written to the Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris to express concerns regarding the collapse of the Flybe.

Chair of FSB NI Alan Lowry said: “Unlike almost any other part of the UK, Northern Ireland society is heavily reliant on air connectivity to maintain links with other cities in Scotland, England and Wales. These links are not only vital to business but also to those engaged in studies at universities in GB and to those who travel as part of the endless ebb and flow of social movements between these islands to participate in sport and leisure. Flybe has been to the fore in providing that connectivity, so its sudden collapse for a second time in recent years is of deep concern.”

He said some may argue Flybe is a private company and that the market must prevail, but pointed out the Government’s own Union Connectivity Review in 2021 made a special case for NI.

In that review, Sir Peter Hendy recommended that, where journeys are too long to be reasonably taken by road or rail, the Government should revise existing subsidy rules for domestic aviation to allow support for routes between different regions of the UK (rather than just to and from London) and to allow multiple airlines to serve a single route.

Mr Lowry said: “It is of deep concern that these recommendations have yet been acted upon and that Northern Ireland now finds itself being stripped of a vital carrier that plays such a significant role in our daily connectivity with the rest of the UK and beyond.”

He said that while there is alternative provision to most of the destinations, each is generally provided by a single carrier, which raises concerns around monopoly provision and no downward pressure on costs.