For Brexit naysayers, the collapse of Flybmi, complete with its Union Jack tailfin, is a symbolic casualty of the political uncertainty that has plagued Britain – and, as Flybmi suggests, proof of the economic burden it has placed on UK businesses.
But even a passionate anti-Brexiteer like myself has difficulty swallowing this. As industry experts have highlighted, with the airline carrying 522,000 passengers on 29,000 flights last year – at an average of just 18 per flight – it would seem simple maths, not Brexit, is the reason for Flybmi’s demise.
And, occurring just a month before the publication of the government’s delayed Airline Insolvency Review, Flybmi’s hundreds of stranded customers are a timely reminder of the unequal playing field that enables airlines to sit outside the Atol scheme, and what these consequences mean for those airline-only customers left unprotected when an airline fails.
Airline bodies will be quick to remind us such collapses are rare. But with Flybmi the fourth airline operating in the UK to collapse in two years, this argument is rapidly losing clout.
Many in travel instead hope Flybmi’s failure “provides a wake-up call for the government”. Because while customers can claim for airline collapses on their credit cards, as legal expert Alan Bowen points out, “there is a real danger the bank will charge back the travel agent if the customer complains”. And that simply isn’t fair, or right.
Monarch, Primera, Cobalt and now Flybmi – how many more airline collapses and stranded passengers must there be before the government finally sits up, takes note and levels the industry playing field?
