Connect Airways

For the proposed Canadian airline, see Connect Airlines. For the defunct Swiss airline, see Connect Air. For the defunct British airline, see Connectair.
Connect Airways Limited
Company typePrivate limited company[1]
IndustryAviation
Founded18 December 2018 (2018-12-18)[1]
FoundersVirgin Atlantic
Stobart Aviation
Defunct10 March 2020
FateUnder administration
HeadquartersExeter Airport, Devon, England
Key people
Mark Anderson, CEO
ProductsAirlines
Owners
SubsidiariesFlybe
Websiteconnect-airways.com

Connect Airways was a consortium formed in December 2018[1] to acquire the British regional airline Flybe,[2] which had put itself up for sale in November 2018 after issuing a profit warning the previous month,[3] The consortium comprised Virgin Atlantic and the Irish wet-lease specialist airline Stobart Air.[2]

The consortium was founded by Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Aviation and Cyrus Capital Partners through its Luxembourg-based vehicle DLP Holdings.[2] Virgin and Stobart each held 30% of the capital with Cyrus holding the remaining 40%.[4] Cyrus Capital had previously worked with Virgin Group on the launch of its Virgin America airline and its subsequent sale to Alaska Airlines.[5]

The purchase of the operating assets of the Flybe Group was completed on 21 February 2019.[6]

On 5 March 2020, the consortium was unable to commit further financial support and Flybe entered administration, ceasing all operations.[7] On 10 March 2020,[8] Connect Airways in turn entered administration.[9]

  1. ^ a b c "Connect Airways Limited – Overview (free company information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference flightglobal-20190111 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Flybe up for sale after profit warning". BBC News. 14 November 2018.
  4. ^ Flybe to Become Virgin Connect Airliner World December 2019
  5. ^ Dyson, Molly. "Virgin Atlantic and Stobart agree Flybe take-over". buyingbusinesstravel.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-11. Retrieved 2019-01-11.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference cityam-20190221 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Flight5march2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "EY Connect Airways limited | EY UK". www.ey.com. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  9. ^ "Stobart Air parent Connect Airways in administration". ch-aviation. 18 March 2020.