Loss of airline creates a troubling gap in air links to and from NI

A number of routes flown by the airline were immediately replaced, such as Belfast to Inverness, which was taken over by Loganair.

While this is a poor substitute for the overall Flybe network, it does suggest that other routes might in time be snapped up by other providers.

But even so, there is no disguising the gravity of what happened on Wednesday night.

Flybe was one of the most important regional operators in the United Kingdom, and critical to airports such as Southampton (with 90% of its flights).

At Belfast City, Flybe had a dramatic 62% of passenger volume, and the failure of the airline is a massive challenge to the airport.

While there is a wider debate to be had about whether it is sensible for Northern Ireland to have three airports (akin to the debate that this column examined last week in relation to the southeast of England about its airport provision), there is no doubt that George Best Belfast City Airport has created a comfortable transit experience that has made it popular with many of its users, yet now it faces a collapse in its turnover.

And the debate about airport provision is clearly secondary just now to the urgent question of how to replace capacity for the 1.6 million passenger movements that Flybe provided in and out of Belfast last year.

This could hardly have happened at a worse time, amid anxieties over the coronavirus (which precipitated the collapse, and which is affecting all airlines).

There is a long-term global debate under way about air travel and climate change but for now plane routes are indispensable to 21st century connections for Northern Ireland. A reduction in air passenger duty is part of overall available levers in helping such routes to and from the Province.