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someone may come back with a more positive and encouraging answer, but I cant see anything good.

What's left is an empty vessel. It could perhaps come back phoenix like from the flames with a significant cash injection. But if that were to happen I suspect it would be some form of debt for equity arrangement and with the creation of large numbers of new shares your holding would be correspondingly (and potentially quite massively) diluted.

I'm not advising but I wrestled with precisely the same dilemma and opted (under considerable duress) to bail. I can at least now afford a beer at London pub prices to raise glass to other decent people who have been utterly rolled over.

There are two definitions of lying.

The dictionary definition about making claims that are knowingly false.

A second informal one - saying things that are strictly factually correct but in a way (and selectively omitting other things) that invites others to draw entirely erroneous conclusions.

I think we could all be forgiven for feeling the announcements on the Flybe website that I've pointed to in this thread over the last few minutes, and absence of any announcement of dire financial circumstances, amount to the the latter.

and on 27th December they were delighting in having to take on extra aircraft to cope with demand :

https://www.flybe.com/media/news/1812/1712b

None of this points to anything other than an invitation to view the future positively!

Sorry Ox42, how about this :

https://www.flybe.com/media/news/1811/2711

An announcement on 27th November about new flights between Edinburgh and London staying 31st March 2019.

On the matter of expansion, Flybe also announced operations on a new route

https://www.flybe.com/media/news/1811/2211-1

Announced on 22nd November with flights due to start on 31st march 2019.....not the actions or timeframes of a company on the very edge of utter financial catastrophe

How about this from flybe's own website, posted on 27th November?

https://www.flybe.com/media/news/1811/27113

See second paragraph and particularly comment about "increasing the size of Flybe bases" at Birmingham and Manchester. Yes, born of necessity but no indication that Flybe were doing the minimum necessary to secure future operations. On the contrary, they were announcing expansion!

I suspect it wont be there much longer so grab a screenshot everyone.

agreed, this cannot be perceived as an attempt to recover investment losses. In my opinion there are two aspects to excite interest from the media:

- an interesting question of how the BoD behaved and how this particular sale was conducted;

- a wider and arguably more important story about market regulation
(1) the level of scrutiny of companies and the protection that small investors might reasonably be expect from regulators and others given that so many are now being actively encouraged, for example, to take control of their pensions through SIPPs
(2) the impact on other SMEs, who are the backbone of the economy and the government's plans for economic regeneration, if loss of confidence in this market takes hold.

apologies - "preparing" not "protecting"

Good morning 0x42 (and all),

One more for your timeline if you agree :

Previously outsourced, Flybe brought engineering services in-house with the recruitment of around 100 highly qualified and experienced staff. This decision was consistent and widely interpreted as evidence of the BoD were protecting for long term operation, and is entirely incompatible with the financial position disclosed only shortly after.

Can you drop it in?

Taverham, I suspect our nearly simultaneous posts crossed somewhere over the North atlantic or wherever the internet took them.

Absolutely agree. A great piece of work, and will prove invaluable.

I've just arrived home to find over 200 new posts today, many excellent ones amongst them.

I have written to both The Guardian and FCA today. As many of us a possible of us doing so can only help, but as private individuals I fear our concerns are and will be swept under the carpet.

Nevertheless, we should persist in our efforts to make as many people as possible aware of this affair and our sense on unfairness or worse at the hands of the Flybe BoD.

At 10:28 today I started this thread sharing what I thought might be a constructive way forward. If you haven't done so can I invite you to read it? Amongst my thoughts were the need to :

- achieve the widest possible circulation of our concerns and
- mobilise others who are not easily ignored

There are some thoughts in my post on how we might work together to achieve this.

Thanks to those who have responded (here or to the email address), and to 0x42 in particular for being ahead of my thinking and setting up a website! If you haven't seen it can I encourage you to support the effort to pull together a complete and reliable chronology of relevant events.

Forgive me, I hope this doesn't sound patronising and I have the upmost respect and regard for (very nearly) everyone on this board. Please read this in the spirit it is intended.

Apologies, I should have been clearer - contribute to the list 0x42 has kindly started.

I would appeal to everyone to please contribute where they can.if you aren't IT literate please put your input here and someone will copy it across.

In order to avoid diluting the possible impact, I suggest that only those things that are auditable by reference to an objective primary source be included.

There is a separate but closely related thread "Anger gives way to action". If you can spare the time please read that too.

Pianista - thanks for reentering the debate. Your contributions are always welcome.

0x42 - thanks for your support.

Hi pa_richards,

I don't think i am missing the point, and I am not suggesting state aid aor anything of the sort.

Any and every investment is a gamble of some sort. But there are a number of people here, and presumably more widely, that how the exercise was conducted merits proper scrutiny....if only to reassure people that their fears are misplaced.

And they will do it to anyone who writes in a personal capacity. That's precisely why I am suggesting something different.

With regards to STEP 2, if you do contact your MP and they refuse or are reluctant to act we should note that and publish these facts of the web site as well.

This is the digital communications age; we need to talk and grumble not amongst ourselves but with the largest possible and most influential audience.

apologies for typos/misspellings !

Please bear with me .....

I like many have lost a painfully large amount and, just for the record, sold out yesterday. not because i wanted to but because the shenanigans led me to the conclusion that we as shareholders had been utterly betrayed or worse. I understand and respect those who are still in, but I could see no outcome other than 1p per share and and very reluctantly, and angrily took a little more. But insufficient to quell my rage. Rage others feel too.

I was hoping that rage and feeling of manipulation and exploitation would subside. It hasn't.

All credit to those who continue to debate the future and options for a fairer outcome. To all of those who have written to the FCA/SFO, I say a hearty well done.

But I fear it it will be insufficient to achieve anything. FCA/SFO do not, in my opinion, have a strong track record, and I suspect neither will be keen to initiate any work or investigation unless forced. They have not the spare capacity and will be reluctant to take on Virgin et al.

However worthy, your efforts alone will not compel action. I suggest the following :

- STEP 1, CONTACT YOUR MP demanding they approach these organisations on your behalf and behalf of all affected shareholders.

- Put your own political allegiance aside.
(1) If your MP is Labour, it is an example of exploitation of the public by an out of control and ineffectively regulated market with devastating impact on those who might expect more protection.
(2) If they are Conservative it is exactly the type of shady practice that undermines popular conservatism, undoes decades of work (initiated under Thatcher) to enable public participation in markets (including share dealing ISAs, SIPPs etc) and threatens investment in SMEs who are the backbone of both the economy and industrial strategy
(3) anything else, a mixture of the two and whatever your imagination tells you

Only once the SFO/FCA start receiving letters on House of Commons headed paper from MPs requesting action on behalf of badly affected constituents will either do anything.

- STEP 2 Post this or (your version of it) on as many other bulletin boards and social media sights as you have accounts on. The more people who are mobilised and the more MPs who are galvanised into action the better.

- STEP 3 I an an IT dinosaur. Does anyone have the technical ability to set up a website and post a strictly factual chronological account of events from say start of last year, and a summary of concerns? Let's get this out for all to read. We want only 1 such site, not an explosion of them. Email me if you can do it and I will post a link etc. I have set up an email address you can contact me on if you wish to. This probably lies beyond the ToR's of our LSE accounts (FLYBSale@gmail.com). I won't guarantee a quick response but will try my best

- STEP 4 - if it gathers momentum, engage the press, if only as a story about shareholder activism.
Damn it, this cannot be allowed