Travel Question: I booked with Flybe – is cancellation inevitable?

Q I wasn’t caught up in the Flybe mass cancellations yesterday, but I do have a couple of forward bookings with the airline for trips from Belfast. Should I be looking for alternative flights?

Joanne A

A The UK’s biggest regional airline has been having a torrid time. It went into the winter predicting losses of £7,000 an hour, and asking to be rescued. As other airlines perished, such as its smaller rival, Flybmi, a buyer came forward – a consortium of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Air and a US hedge fund.

They have pumped in many millions to keep the airline afloat, and over the weekend Flybe launched a new four-times-a-day link from Heathrow to Newquay in Cornwall, and a daily service from Heathrow to Guernsey.

But the carrier has had an awful week since the summer schedules began on Sunday. Dozens of flights were cancelled yesterday alone, with passengers from George Best Belfast City airport particularly badly affected – 10 departures and arrivals were grounded. The cause is principally a shortage of pilots.

Some people have speculated that Flybe is on the brink, and that it could also fail. But I don’t read the situation like that. The airline is certainly continuing to lose money, not least with huge compensation payments and care costs for stranded passengers.

The new owners, though, have a fairly long-term strategy to turn the airline around. They are cutting back the network, specifically flights from Cardiff, Doncaster and Norwich, and see Flybe very much as a going concern – not least because of its appealing collection of slots at Heathrow.

So you need not fear the airline closing. But certainly while the airline’s pilot shortage persists there is a danger that yours may be among the flight cancelled. As always, it pays to have a backup plan – at least knowing what alternative flights are available, so that you can grab a seat as soon as any cancellation pops up, ahead of the pack.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder