Flybe

Flybe's origins trace to 1979 when it was founded as Jersey European Airways, providing air service between the Channel Islands and UK mainland. The airline gradually expanded its regional UK network through the 1980s and 1990s. In 2000, Jersey European was rebranded as British European, and then again in 2002 as Flybe — a contraction of "Fly Be" — as part of a rebranding to compete more effectively as a low-cost regional carrier. Flybe expanded aggressively through the 2000s, acquiring British Airways' regional subsidiary BA Connect in 2007 and several other regional UK carriers, which made it by far the dominant force in UK domestic aviation.

The airline listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2010. However, financial difficulties related to high operating costs — regional aviation is notoriously expensive to operate profitably — plagued Flybe throughout the 2010s. A buyout by Connect Airways consortium (including Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Group) in 2019 temporarily provided capital. The COVID-19 pandemic proved fatal for the financially weakened carrier, and Flybe entered administration on March 5, 2020 — one of the first airline casualties of the pandemic.

The airline's routes, slots, and routes were quickly absorbed by competitors. A new Flybe — under different ownership but using the same brand name — was launched in April 2022, initially with a small network from Birmingham. The relaunched carrier entered administration for a second time in January 2023, ceasing operations but subsequently resumed a limited operation, demonstrating the extreme difficulty of sustaining regional aviation economics.