All flights have been cancelled and passengers should contact their card issuer or booking agent for refunds.

Passengers due to travel with Flybmi via one of the airline’s codeshare partners – Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Loganair, Air France and Air Dolomiti – should contact their booking agent or the partner airline directly for further details.

The airline cited "insurmountable" challenges posed by factors, including Brexit, for its collapse.

Flybmi operated a fleet of 17 aircraft serving 25 European cities. Bmi Regional employed 376 people in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Belgium.

An airline spokesperson said: “It is with a heavy heart we have made this unavoidable announcement today.

"The airline has faced several difficulties, including recent spikes in fuel and carbon costs, the latter arising from the EU’s recent decision to exclude UK airlines from full participation in the Emissions Trading Scheme. These issues have undermined efforts to move the airline into profit.

"Current trading and future prospects have also been seriously affected by the uncertainty created by the Brexit process, which has led to our inability to secure valuable flying contracts in Europe and lack of confidence around bmi’s ability to continue flying between destinations in Europe.

"Additionally, our situation mirrors wider difficulties in the regional airline industry, which have been well documented.

“Against this background, it has become impossible for the airline’s shareholders to continue their extensive programme of funding into the business, despite investment totalling over £40m in the last six years.

"We sincerely regret that this course of action has become the only option open to us, but the challenges, particularly those created by Brexit, have proven to be insurmountable.

“Our employees have worked extremely hard over the last few years and we would like to thank them for their dedication to the company, as well as all our loyal customers who have flown with us over the last six years.”

Flybmu served Aberdeen, Bristol, Brno, Derry, Dusseldorf, East Midlands, Esbjerg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Jonkoping, Karlstad, London Stansted, Lublin, Milan Bergamo, Munich, Newcastle, Norrkoping, Nuremburg, Oslo, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Rostock/Laage, Saarbrucken and Stavanger.

It carried 522,000 passengers via 29,000 flights last year.