Will Maule

Don’t sacrifice Flybe to the eco-warrior mob

When I saw droves of carbonistas suggesting that the ailing airline Flybe should be left to nosedive into financial oblivion, I immediately rolled my eyes. Of course an airline that serves people outside of London is falling victim to the city’s woke scaremongers. To millions of people functioning outside of the capital’s bubble, however, travelling from places like Exeter, Belfast, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, and Norwich – Flybe is absolutely vital to their livelihood.

Of all the operators to pick an eco-fight with, Flybe is a strange choice. The company’s flagship aircraft, the Dash 8 Q400, utilises ‘turboprop’ technology for thrust, burning 30 per cent less fuel and producing an astonishing 30 to 40 per cent less carbon than normal jets. They are the eco-warriors of the airline industry, for goodness’ sake. Unfortunately, none of that matters in a culture where generic climate change arguments are stripped of nuance and militantly imposed with no questions asked. A quick scan online will tell you that, by pain of mob judgement, you must not express any concern for those plagued by the Australian bushfires unless you’re ready to ditch Flybe for good and force residents of the Isle of Man to get in their dinghies and row across the Irish Sea.

So why aren’t Greta Thunberg’s adherents ridiculing Ryanair’s petulant CEO, Michael O’Leary, who is hellbent on putting Flybe in the grave so he can steal their routes and whittle away our leg room until we can all taste our own kneecaps? O’Leary, who has threatened the Government with legal action unless Flybe’s grace periods, or ‘tax holidays’, are extended to other airlines (ie. Ryanair), is by all accounts a pretty dreadful man, who once said concerns about climate change were ‘complete and utter rubbish’.

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