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Posted

It's not looking good.

 

Struggling airline Flybe 'set to collapse within hours' [bBC News]

 

Airline Flybe is set to collapse within hours, putting 2,000 jobs at risk after a bid for fresh financial support failed, the BBC has learned.

 

The struggling carrier narrowly avoided going bust in January.

 

Exeter-based Flybe said the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on demand for air travel was partly to blame.

 

Its website has stopped working, it now carries a message stating "This link is no longer live".

 

Passengers who had boarded a flight in Glasgow bound for Birmingham on Wednesday evening had to disembark after "a fuel issue" meant the flight was cancelled.

 

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Posted

Collapse now confirmed.

 

Link: Collapsed Flybe tells passengers not to travel to airports [bBC News]

 

Airline Flybe has gone into administration, putting 2,000 jobs at risk after a bid for fresh financial support failed.

 

The carrier said the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on demand for air travel was partly to blame for its collapse.

 

Its website now advises customers to "not travel to the airport" unless they have arranged an alternative flight.

 

Exeter-based Flybe narrowly avoided going bust in January.

 

News of the airline's troubles were reported by the BBC earlier on Wednesday.

 

Passengers who had boarded a flight in Glasgow bound for Birmingham on Wednesday evening had to disembark after "a fuel issue" meant the flight was cancelled...

Posted

Seems like this is a major problem for interconnections in the UK

 

 

Liverpool must be thanking whoever decided to build a stupidly long runway many years ago - it has meant that nearly everything using the airport is a jet and it is mostly longer routes than Flybe did

 

Even Concord could land there (I saw her do so many times!)

Posted
If I could see the sky; I'd be seeing a very empty one. Practically all the flights out of Southampton were Flybe... And the runway is too short for big stuff to take off, apparently you could land a jumbo, but it would leave chopped up on lorries.
Posted (edited)
If I could see the sky; I'd be seeing a very empty one. Practically all the flights out of Southampton were Flybe... And the runway is too short for big stuff to take off, apparently you could land a jumbo, but it would leave chopped up on lorries.

 

Well if you are being pedantic you could land a 747 in our back garden

 

*mod

 

Not funny Mike

Edited by witch
  • Thanks 1
Posted

747s are never going to be serving regional airports (if only because they're being phased out by passenger carriers anyway!).

 

The new Airbus A220 however would do very nicely - I can imagine BA CityFlyer or some new subsidiary of a major airline picking up a few of Flybe's more profitable routes using those. A significant improvement over the Dash-8s that Flybe used (ever sat by the wing on one of those? Less than pleasant!)

Posted
One more to add to the list...

 

Shopping centre owner Intu seeks emergency cash

 

Link: Shopping centre giant Intu warns it could go bust [bBC News]

 

The owner of some of the UK's biggest shopping centres, Intu, has said there are doubts that it can survive unless it raises extra funds.

 

Its comments came as the firm - which owns Manchester's Trafford Centre and the Lakeside complex in Essex - reported a £2bn loss in 2019.

 

The weakness in the retail sector meant Intu wrote down the value of its shopping centre sites by nearly £2bn.

 

Intu will try to raise extra cash after an earlier plan to raise £1bn failed.

 

The collapse and contraction of High Street retailers has left landlords such as Intu struggling to fill vacant space. At the same time, Intu has run up debts of nearly £5bn.

 

In January, the firm approached its shareholders to ask for more money amid the downturn in the retail sector.

 

But last week, Intu said it was at risk of breaching debt covenants after it was forced to abandon the fundraising attempt. It said "extreme market conditions" deterred investors from giving fresh cash.

 

To help it keep going, the firm said it would try to engage with investors, or it might have to sell more of its assets.

 

The company has already been selling shopping centres to raise cash.

 

Intu said it could also try to seek waivers on its debt commitments to lenders and spend less in the short term...

Posted (edited)
Carphone Warehouse to close all standalone stores at cost of 2,900 jobs

 

I can't say I'm surprised. The mobile phone market was saturated, when I worked for a etailer 10 years ago. Markups are tiny. We would make £10 on a £300 phone. Mind you, we would make £3 on a £5 case. One of our biggest sellers was porn screen savers.

 

Wait... people wanted pornographic screensavers, or was that some kind of tech to hide your porn?

 

I'm also unsurprised at their collapse - people either buy phones online unlocked (e.g. Apple, pick any big tech retailer), or increasingly second-hand (e.g. CeX, eBay). And as for contract deals, I've usually found it pays to negotiate direct with the network.

Edited by FishCustard
Posted
No they were porn pictures on your phone, which cost the company nothing. I can't remember what we sold them for, maybe a fiver.

 

Not sure why anyone would want that, but hey, good business!

Posted
Yup, which is one of the major employers here in Mid Wales. I think it's been inevitable for years, but this is not a wealthy area and we're about to feel this big time!
Posted (edited)

The companies that are going to go in the next few days are those that had zero liquidity anyway, and any rocky trading situation would have been the end of them. It's ones that go bump in 3 months or so that'll be the "wow, I didn't expect that" kind.

 

Laura Ashley - Not surprising. Have been struggling for years.

Carphone Warehouse stand alones closing - Again not a surprise. Standalone mobile shops in the age of internet purchasing and consolidated tech stores have always been in danger. Remember Dixons Retail as it used to be owned "The Link" which went in 2010, and Phones 4U vanished in 2014. Legacy of a time gone by. We now have tech stores, rather than home appliance, computer and mobile stores all being separate.

Edited by paulkerton
  • Thanks 1
Posted
So you're selling smartphones to people who didn't know how to use google, but were fine asking random strangers for porn. Small market.

 

Was google available on phones 10 years ago? Not having had a mobile for abour 20 years, I don't keep up with the latest goings on in mobile comms.

Posted
Was google available on phones 10 years ago? Not having had a mobile for abour 20 years, I don't keep up with the latest goings on in mobile comms.

I used to be able to use Google on my Nokia 7110!

Posted
If Dixons Carphone are dying I hope they don't drag iD Mobile down with them because they've been mint for the half year I've been with them.
Posted
If Dixons Carphone are dying I hope they don't drag iD Mobile down with them because they've been mint for the half year I've been with them.

It is a virtual network running on Three. You'd get grandfathered over.

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