Conservative MP for St Austell and Newquay, Steve Double, tweeted Flybe's collapse was a "real blow".

Mr Double added he intended to work with the government to "secure support" for the Newquay to London route.

A tearful Flybe cabin crew member said she was "not sure what we're going to do now", following the airline's collapse.

Katherine Densham, who worked for Flybe for 13 years, said she found out about the collapse at home "in the early hours of the morning".

"I thought that we'd be saved, but not this time."

Ms Densham, from Exeter, said she had come in to the airport because she wanted to "see everyone".

She added she had "no idea" what she would do next.

"Try and find something to pay the bills.".

Image source, Getty Images

More comment on the news that regional airline Flybe has collapsed into administration.

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: "Flybe’s problems were known to many and the sector as a whole is going through an incredibly tough period with the coronavirus hitting bookings and dampening demand, and this is being felt across the board."

Flybe said it is now the fourth UK airline to go out of business in two years.

Mr Alderslade added: "The government is right to say aviation is a commercial proposition and the market should win out – but they are not using the policy levers at their disposal to help the sector. Air Passenger Duty is the prime example of a disproportionate and penalising policy that is actively holding us back.

He also said that next week's Budget presents Chancellor Rishi Sunak with the "perfect opportunity" to explore help for airlines.

Image source, Flybe

A franchise partner of Flybe which flies to the Channel Islands has said it will operate "uninterrupted" despite the UK airline's collapse.

Blue Islands runs flights from Jersey and Guernsey to Bristol, Southampton, London City, East Midlands and Newquay.

It said it was "saddened" byFlybe's collapseand would put on additional flights to Exeter and Birmingham on Thursday to help passengers.

Exeter-based Flybe went into administration on Wednesday.

Blue Islands said in a statement that any Flybe passengers with an existing booking would be flown for free on a "first come, first served basis".

Read more here.

More from customers who have arrived at different airports to find their Flybe flights cancelled.

The regional airline, which has gone into administration, is advising customers not to travel to the airport unless they've arranged an alternative flight.

Jessica, Abby and Robyn all work for a recruitment agency and were due to return to Jersey via Exeter Airport after a business trip. They described the airport as a "ghost town" on arrival and said that they would need to find a new route home.

Abby said: "I use Flybe maybe once a month, and not having it now will be such a nightmare."

The group said that other airlines such as EasyJet or British Airways did operate flights from Jersey, but they typically only flew into larger airports such as London Gatwick.

Blue Islands has said it is operating a flight to Jersey from Exeter on Thursday afternoon as a gesture of goodwill.

Dominic O'Connell
Business Presenter, BBC Radio 4 Today programme

Image source, Getty Images

For the past 15 years Flybe has been trying to join the big boys of aviation, and failing.

The serious push came 10 years ago when it raised money with a stock market float, and set out a plan to become Europe’s biggest regional airline, flying mid-sized planes between secondary cities. The model works brilliantly in the US, where regional airlines, often flying as franchises of the larger network carriers, are a large and thriving business. It did not work - or at least Flybe did not make it work - in Europe.

Cash resources dwindle

It retrenched, and was left in the farcical situation of paying for a fleet of Embraer aircraft that it could not fly. They sat on the ground as the airline desperately tried to offload them. The remaining network was still too big, and cash resources dwindled. The airline came close to going under at the start of last year, but was bought by consortium of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart, and a financial investor Cyrus Capital.

They had conflicting objectives. Virgin was eager to preserve feed to its long-haul flights at Heathrow, and perhaps snaffle along the way some of Flybe’s valuable Heathrow slots. Stobart was eager to keep flights at its main asset, Southend Airport. And Cyrus thought it might make money if the business was resuscitated. But the trio were slow to act – a rebranding to Virgin Connect never happened, and losses continued to rise. A cold shoulder from the government and a rapid drop in bookings thanks to the coronavirus sealed the airline’s fate.

Worrying moment

For the airports most affected - Southampton, Exeter and Belfast City – this will be a worrying moment. There is not a queue of airlines wanting to pick up UK regional routes – and particularly not when the coronavirus has plunged the entire industry into uncertainty.

Image source, Getty Images

EasyJet is offering a "dedicated rescue fee" for customers who had a booking with collapsed airline FlyBe.

Until the end of May it will fly passengers for a fare of £65 - including a 15kg hold bag - if customers present their original Flybe booking reference.

It is also offering free flights for Flybe staff to get them home, valid today and tomorrow.

Stobart Group - one of the members of the Connect consortium which took over Flybe last year- has said it is "deeply disappointed" that the airline has gone into administration.

"The consortium wishes to express its immense gratitude to the 2,400 people employed by Flybe for their commitment and energy over the past 12 months."

The company added: "Flybe had shown promising signs of a turnaround despite the delay to receiving merger control clearance from the European Commission for its acquisition.

"However, despite the best efforts of all, not least the Flybe people, the impact of COVID-19 on Flybe's trading means that the consortium can no longer commit to continued financial support."

Not long after open the London index of leading blue chip shares was trading down.

In early dealing the FTSE 100 was down 16.47 points, or 0.24%, at 6799.80.

Belfast City Airport has said negotiations are already under way with "a number of carriers"after the collapse of Flybe.

Flybe operated 14 routes from the airport, making up about 80% of all scheduled flights.

Would-be passengers have been advised not to go to the airport, with all Flybe flights cancelled.

The chief executive of Belfast City Airport said he was "extremely disappointed at this news".

"From Belfast City Airport, Flybe had operated a strong and profitable base of 14 routes to key regional destinations across the UK," said Brian Ambrose.

"The airline was a significant economic driver for the region, carrying 1.6 million passengers to and from Belfast in 2019.

"I am confident that these well-established routes, coupled with our city centre location and recent £15m investment in terminal facilities, will prove an attractive option to airlines."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA Media

Flybe's collapse is a "very serious event for Cornwall and the economy of Cornwall", the chairman of Cornwall Airport, Tim Jeans, has said.

Speaking to the Today programme, he said Flybe comprised nearly 75% of the traffic through Newquay airport - including the public service obligation route to London Heathrow - so the impact was going to be "very significant".

Mr Jeans added that the airport had been talking to other airlines about taking over Flybe's routes, and these airlines "will be contacted once more and the negotiations and discussions will begin in earnest".

"We very much hope that the routes - in particular to London, but also to Manchester and Scotland - will be maintained and that we will have service back on those routes hopefully within weeks rather than months."

Image source, PA Media

Flybe passengers have been arriving at Birmingham Airport this morning, unaware the company has gone into administration.

The airport is the "main base" for Flybe carrying out the airline's "biggest operation", said the travel editor of The Independent, Simon Calder.

Flybe's website is advising customers to "not travel to the airport" unless they have arranged an alternative flight.

"Even though the airline sent out messages at about two o'clock in the morning saying don't turn up today, many people didn't see that," he said.

"The first people I met was a group of lads heading off to Amsterdam, they're very disappointed - they've also lost their accommodation booking - they can try and claim on their insurance."

"Next up - a couple who were actually heading to Australia - all they wanted was a short hop across to Amsterdam, then they're connecting to Singapore and onto Cairns in north Queensland."

Image source, Getty Images

Cardiff Airport said all Flybe flights were cancelled and people should not travel to the airport unless they had booked alternative flights.

The airport's chief executive Deb Bowen Rees said she was "deeply saddened" by the collapse of the airline, which had made a "hugely positive impact" on the airport.

She said the airport was "actively talking to a number of airlines" about taking over the routes flown by Flybe.

"Given the Flybe news we will focus on filling the core domestic routes which Flybe serve for the region," she said.

"Flights to Anglesey, Teeside and Aberdeen will continue to operate as normal with Eastern Airways.

Simon Calder, travel editor of the Independent, told BBC Radio Wales: "As a proportion of the total operations, Cardiff's departure board is going to be looking very, very thin."

During a recent assembly committee Welsh civil servant Andrew Slade said the airline attracted between 320,000 and 340,000 passengers a year to the airport.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

Kim Piner is boss of job agency Winners Recruitment in Truro, Cornwall. She was supposed to be on a Flybe flight to London earlier this morning.

She tells BBC Radio Five Live's Wake up to Money: "I had a meeting in London which was really important."

She said Flybe was pivotal in getting business people from Cornwall to the capital.

"It is a five hour drive up, we are at the tip of the country. I will need to go up overnight next week, which will cost more time and money."

She said it was not always possible to hold business meetings over the telephone or using other digital methods, as things such as meetings with accountants meant she had to go through paperwork very carefully in person.

Image source, David Manners

Customers are currently being advised by Flybe "not travel to the airport" unless they have arranged an alternative flight.

David Manners, arrived at Exeter Airport this morning to find his Flybe flight to Paris cancelled.

The trip had been planned as a surprise Christmas present for his wife and he said they were "absolutely gutted".

Mr Manners, who lives in Lyme Regis, said Flybe's collapse would also be bad for the area.

"We use this airport quite a lot because it's so convenient," he said.

"We know some of the staff very well… I feel for them."

Have you had to change your travel plans because of Flybe's collapse? Do get in touch with us bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk

Image source, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

A quick diversion from the Flybe story.

The International Monetary Fund has announced $50bn (£39bn) of support for countries hit by the coronavirus.

The organisation also warned that the outbreak had already pushed this year's global economic growth below last year's levels.

This week governments and central banks around the world have taken action to ease the impact of the virus.

Read more here

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

Jill Starley-Grainger is a British-American travel writer who runs the website jetsetjourneys.com.

She tells BBC Radio Five Live's Wake up to Money programme that affected Flybe passengers should check their travel insurance to see if they have either "scheduled airline failure" cover, or "end supplier failure" cover.

"If it has either of those it should cover you," she says, but adds that only around 50% of travel insurance policies will include such cover.

She also says if you paid by credit card and the flight cost more than £100, then you should be able to claim back via the card, through something called Section 75.

"Also on credit cards you should be able to claim for any consequential costs, things like car hire, which you have been unable to cancel," she says.

She adds there is also a facility to make claims for flights made via debit cards, through something called "charge back" for flights that cost more than £100.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

Newly-collapsed airline Flybe had been "struggling for a good long time,” Andrew Lobbenberg, analyst at HSBC aviation research, told the Today Programme.

Issues at the regional airline go back 10 years, he says, after Flybe ordered too many planes in an ambitious expansion bid.

“They ended up putting planes on routes to use up the aeroplanes, rather than buying a fleet to fly routes effectively and successive managements battled with that burden,” Mr Lobbenburg says.

He adds there is “certainly not a queue” of other airlines ready to step into Flybe’s shoes, given the current drop-off in airline bookings – but a “handful” of routes will be backfilled.