The latest regional airline failure has affected a dozen destinations, but at its peak, Stobart Air – which flew as Aer Lingus Regional – operated 30 routes to the UK, Europe and within Ireland in the shamrock livery.

Stobart’s chief role was to connect the UK and Ireland, including feeding Aer Lingus mainline’s fast-expanding transatlantic network from Dublin. Before Covid, Stobart had also operated on behalf of Flybe from Southend airport and for BA City Flyer, but at its collapse, was limited to flying for Aer Lingus.

Stobart’s demise was ultimately caused by the pandemic, but an unusual sale process pushed it over the edge. A deal was sealed in April for the airline to pay £49 million to a new owner to take the carrier from the hands of Esken, the rebranded former Stobart Group.

The buyer was a 26-year-old Isle of Man entrepreneur, Jason Scales, described as being in the “crypto mining and blockchain” business, who had no aviation experience. The collapse of the deal – which also included the £15 million purchase of Carlisle airport – over the weekend, led to liquidators being appointed and 480 jobs lost.

Stobart Air said: “Last April, Stobart Air announced that a new owner had been identified. However, it has emerged that the funding to support this transaction is no longer in place and the new owner is now unable to conclude the transaction.”

Scales had set up a shell company, Ettyl, to take over the airline and airport. In a tweet, he said: “The past few weeks have been some of the most challenging I have ever experienced.

“After issues were flagged to do with an Ettyl funder, we fought hard to conclude a deal that rescued Stobart Air. “My thoughts are with every amazing Stobart Air employee today. I’m sorry.”

Stobart’s contract with Aer Lingus had in any case been due to expire at the end of 2022. Waiting in the wings was Aer Lingus’s preferred bidder for replacement, Emerald Airlines. The issue, short term, is that Emerald is a start-up business that has yet to operate any flights.

Emerald Airlines was founded by Conor McCarthy, a former Aer Lingus executive, who said earlier his venture “can be ready to start from summer 2021 if necessary”. However, Emerald declined to comment on whether it would bring forward its launch.

Gaps to be filled

Meanwhile, the pandemic means the immediate impact of Stobart’s collapse has been somewhat cushioned in that many services were not operating in any case.

The routes affected are Belfast to Edinburgh, Exeter, East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Birmingham and Manchester, plus Dublin to Kerry, Donegal, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Newquay.

Aer Lingus mainline has taken over Belfast services to Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham, as well as Dublin-Edinburgh. In addition, BA City Flyer will operate Belfast City to Exeter and Leeds Bradford until 18 June.

Aer Lingus may also want to make its presence on Stobart’s routes short-lived. On one hand, it has abundant crews and aircraft to employ, but it must use Airbus A320 jets, which have 174 seats, compared to the 72 on the less thirsty regional fleet best suited to this type of operation, especially given current demand.

The impact goes further, as Stobart’s collapse also affects the domestic services from Dublin to Kerry and Donegal, which are government-supported Public Service Obligation routes. The Irish Times reports Estonia’s state-owned airline Nordica has offered to take over the Kerry service, with talks “at an advanced stage”.

Aer Lingus will hope all its connectivity is sorted when travel returns, otherwise it will find its US services from Dublin less of an attractive proposition in the UK if there are no feeder flights and seamless connections.

The pre-Covid list of connections shows the gaps to be filled; Dublin to Bristol, Newcastle, Jersey, Isle of Man and Aberdeen among them. Then there are six routes from Cork to the UK, and two from Shannon.

Aer Lingus said: “Alternative operations for the outstanding routes are still being determined.”

It may, however, be a long time before the full list is restored.