Flybe and Connect Airways

In the UK, Connect Airways, a consortium consisting of Ireland’s Stobart Group, Virgin Atlantic and Cyrus Capital, got the go-ahead for the acquisition of regional airline Flybe.

Part of that will include a rebrand of Flybe, to take on a Virgin name. Our guess is that it will be called ‘Virgin Connect’ or similar, to show that it compliments Virgin Atlantic as a smaller regional feeder airline.

At this point however that’s yet to be decided and when we contacted Connect Airways’ PR representatives they were only able to say that, "Teams from across Connect Airways will work to deliver the new branding, which will kick off in the coming days. We will provide further updates when a more definite timeline emerges."

Separately, Flybe was involved in a controversy, which blew up on social media, after a group of young women flying from Amsterdam to Birmingham after a music festival, accused the airline (and its ground staff in AMS) of racism, when they were refused permission to board.

The women in question filmed various interactions with staff in Amsterdam, and posted it on social media, including ones where handling agents claim that they felt “disgust.”

According to the BBC, Flybe says the group displayed “disruptive behaviour”, and so stands by the decision of its staff.

The rights and wrongs of the incident aside, this should serve as a reminder to airlines that almost every passenger has the ability to film any interaction with your staff on their phones, and post it on social media, where it could be picked up and amplified within minutes.