Jobs on offer for redundant Flybe staff

It is being held at Birmingham Airport on Thursday, February 2.

A message from Ryanair on a dedicated online page for Flybe staff reads: "For all Flybe staff affected by the recent announcement, the Ryanair Group have set up a fast track recruitment process for Flybe Employees and have positions for all of you across all areas of our business including flight crew, cabin crew, engineers, ground staff and office staff. We will endeavour to get you back into employment as soon as possible."

All flight deck, ground staff and engineering positions will be guaranteed a UK base. Head office and operations control positions are based in Dublin. All positions are available immediately.

Flybe employees are invited to send a CV with your job title in the 'headline' section and Ryanair will fast track applications.

Only 45 members of staff at Flybe, which has its headquarters in Diamond House at Birmingham Airport, have been retained after it entered administration on Saturday.

The administrators say that 276 employees have now been made redundant including 99 working within Birmingham Airport and 34 in Diamond House.

The remaining staff – including 35 at Diamond House – will assist the joint administrators from Interpath Advisory.

Flybe had struggled since its relaunch last year

All scheduled flights, including those from Birmingham Airport, have been cancelled.

David Pike, managing director at Interpath Advisory and Joint Administrator to Flybe said: “We will provide support to those who have been affected by redundancy, including supporting them in making claims from the Redundancy Payments Service, and importantly, we will be helping employees obtain access to important records and information such as training records.

“This is a real setback in terms of the UK’s regional connectivity at a time when infrastructure and levelling up is high on the agenda."

Flybe operated passenger flights via 21 routes to 17 destinations across the UK and EU, including Belfast City, Birmingham, East Midlands, Glasgow, Heathrow and Leeds Bradford airports.

British Airways, Ryanair and easyJet are offering impacted customers special fares to enable them to reach their destination.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has issued advice to passengers as travel is not ATOL protected, due to the airline mostly selling flight only bookings.

Staff who have lost their jobs due to the collapse are also being invited to apply for roles with EasyJet, which has 250 vacancies for cabin crew, and Aer Lingus which is also adding extra services from Belfast to Birmingham.

The British Airline Pilots' Association said it had received phone calls in the early hours of Saturday morning from worried Flybe staff, but the union's leader, Martin Chalk, said there were jobs "out there".

Birmingham Airport also has its own jobs fairs at Diamond House on Saturday, February 4 from 10am to 2pm and February 8 between 4pm and 8pm with a wide range of roles available and redundant Flybe staff encouraged to attend,

*Ryanair, which operates flights from Birmingham, has reported a hike in fares and profits amid strong demand for travel.

The Dublin-based airline said average fares between October and December were 14 per cent above 2019 levels.

It recorded a profit of £185 million for the quarter from an £84m loss a year earlier.

The airline carried 38.4 million passengers between October and December, up 24 per cent year-on-year and seven per cent above pre-Covid-19 levels.

Ryanair said there was "strong pent-up travel demand" during the October half-term break and the Christmas and New Year period.

There is "robust demand" for Easter and summer 2023 flights driven by the return of Asian tourists and Americans being encouraged to visit Europe due to the strength of the US dollar, chief executive Michael O'Leary explained.

He recommended that people wanting the lowest fares should book as soon as possible as "we expect these will sell out early".

Ryanair said it has announced 230 new routes for the 12 months to the end of March 2024 and is expanding in Italy, Poland, Ireland and Spain.

The company took delivery of 11 Boeing 737 Gamechanger aircraft in the last quarter, bringing its fleet of the more fuel-efficient aircraft to 84.

Mr O'Leary said an investment of more than £161m will save 1.5 per cent of fuel by retrofitting existing aircraft with scimitar winglets.

He added that more than 95 per cent of crews have had pandemic-related pay cuts restored by agreement.