Several flights to and from Irish airports have been affected.

Passengers who had booked flights with UK airline Flybe have been told not to travel to the airport after the airline confirmed it had entered administration and ceased trading with immediate effect. The news was confirmed in the early hours of Thursday morning and comes after Flybe said on Wednesday that it was in danger of imminent collapse unless it received a £100 million loan from the UK government. The airline, the largest regional airline in Europe, attributed a recent slump in bookings to the impact of the outbreak of the coronavirus, with bookings thought to be down almost 50% in the last week alone. Flybe employs 2,000 people and is a leading carrier at a number of airports including Belfast International Airport. It also operates out of Dublin Airport, Cork Airport and Ireland West Airport (Knock) in Ireland; the flights affected on Thursday from those airports can be seen on the respective websites below.

• Dublin Airport
• Cork Airport
• Ireland West Airport
• Belfast Airport

A statement released by the airline read: “Flybe entered Administration on 5 March 2020 and Alan Hudson, Joanne Robinson, Lucy Winterborne and Simon Edel of EY have been appointed as Joint Administrators. “All flights have been grounded and the UK business has ceased trading with immediate effect. Passengers who had booked flights with Flybe have been told not to travel to the airport unless they have arranged an alternative flight with another airline. Flybe said it is unable to arrange alternative flights for passengers. Passengers have been advised to contact the relevant airline or travel agent if they have a booking sold by another airline that includes travel on a Flybe flight to confirm is there is any impact on their travel plans. More information is available on the Flybe website here.