Due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, the official closure of English air space and following continuing advice from National Air Traffic Services and the Met Office, in the interest of safety, Flybe has now cancelled all of its flights to and from England, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey, up until 0100 on Saturday morning April 17th.

However - based on advice from the Met Office and National Air Traffic Services - it is planned that Scottish airspace will open after 1900 this evening and as a result Flybe plans to operate all scheduled flights between Scotland and Belfast City.

In addition, we are developing plans to operate a ‘shuttle-style’ service between Scotland and Belfast City should, as planned, Scottish airspace be declared open after 1900. Details of this will be advised in the next two hours.

Flybe is committed to restoring service to passengers as soon as airspace is re-opened and as such will make every effort to not only deliver our planned programme scheduled after 1900 between Scotland and Northern Ireland but also operate extra flights wherever possible to assist customers affected by the cancellations to date.

Please continue to check Flybe.com on a regular basis with regard to the operations of flights later today to and from Scotland to Northern Ireland and for this weekend (April 17th and 18th). We will update flybe.com at approximately 1500 this afternoon with regard to the flying programme for Saturday.

Passengers due to fly on any flights scheduled today should not to go to their airport of departure until advised that their flight will be operating.

Passengers due to fly during the affected timeframes may:

1)    Re-book to travel on another flight on the same route at no additional charge within the next 14 days, subject to availability (also extend return flight dates to accommodate required length of stay)
2)    Rebook for travel to the final destination at a later date (subject to availability)
3)    Apply for a refund for the affected flight

Travel agents may request refunds via their BSP link for any flights cancelled in order to minimise delays.

Passengers who have received leaflets at the airport stating that they must contact the call centre within 24 hours in order to apply for a refund, should be reassured that - because of the overwhelming pressure on the Call Centre number resulting in callers sometimes experiencing an ‘unobtainable’ signal or a ‘dead line’ - - this might not be possible and that this period has now been extended to 48 hours.

To minimise call centre volumes, only passengers booked to travel between today and Monday April 19th should attempt to call the Customer Call Centre on 0871 700 2000 or, if calling from outside the UK, 00 44 1392 268500.

Online ticket changes

Passengers due to travel on any cancelled flights today and who are able to retrieve their booking online, can change their booking at flybe.com. They will be fully refunded for any additional Flybe charges. This policy is only applicable if they change their booking to commence travel within 14 days of their original departure date. They may also change the return portion of their journey free of charge as long as the length of stay at the destination remains the same.

Details

  * Please make the change online as normal.
  * Email Flybe at [email protected] providing the booking reference. We will fully refund the ticket change fee, any fare differential and any card administration charges. We aim to make this refund within 14 days, but banks may take longer to they are changing a booking and require a refund on the extras costs incurred).

Emails must be sent immediately to [email protected] following their online change otherwise the refund will not be processed. Flybe will notify the passenger once a refund has been processed.