Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Group have revised their offer for Flybe after the struggling regional carrier failed to meet the conditions to secure a £20 million loan.
Connect Airways, a new joint venture between Virgin Atlantic, Stobart and investor Cyrus Capital, announced plans to buy Flybe and rebrand its services under the Virgin name on January 11.
The consortium had offered £2.2 million for Flybe and agreed to provide a credit facility of up to £20 million to the Exeter-based airline. But Flybe has been unable to meet the conditions for this loan “despite significant efforts” and so could access any of this money.
This has led to Connect restructuring its deal to provide revised funding of up to £20 million to Flybe, including £10 million which was released to the company on Tuesday (January 15).
In a statement it was also confirmed that“a number of improved agreements with banks have also been reached today to improve liquidity” for Flybe.
“The board of Flybe believes that obtaining this revised facility from the consortium provides the security that the business needs to continue to trade successfully,” added the statement from Flybe and Connect.
Connect has also confirmed that it is still commited to providing Flybe with £80 million in further funding as part of the acquisition.
In a separate move, Flybe agreed on Monday (January 14) to sell some of its Gatwick take-off and landing slots to Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling for £4.5 million.