Airline Flybe hoists the '˜for sale' flag

Chief executive Christine Ourmieres-Widener said the group continued to see improvements in the third quarter. Picture: Jon Savage

The carrier, which runs a number of services out of Scotland, said it is also looking at cutting further costs and flight capacity as it battles challenging conditions in the airline industry.

The group is in talks with a number of “strategic operators” about a potential sale and has hired Evercore as adviser to help with the review and sale process.

It comes weeks after Flybe warned over profits following falling demand and a £29 million hit from rising fuel costs and the weak pound.

The alert sent shares tumbling by more than a third on the day and nearly 75 per cent has been wiped off its stock market value since December.

Stobart Group walked away from a bid for Flybe in March after the two firms failed to agree terms.

But Stobart, which already has a franchise agreement with Flybe, could reportedly come back into the frame.

Flybe has 78 planes operating from airports including the likes of Edinburgh, London City and Southampton, and flies to destinations across the UK and Europe. It carries around eight million passengers a year.

In half-year results also announced today, Flybe saw cost-cutting help lift underlying pre-tax profits to £9.9m from £9.2m a year earlier.

Statutory pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 September more than halved to £7.4m from £16.1m a year earlier.

It saw group revenues fall by 2.4 per cent on an underlying basis to £409.2m after it cut capacity by 9 per cent. Passenger numbers edged 0.6 per cent higher to 5.2 million.

Chief executive Christine Ourmieres-Widener said the group continued to see improvements in the third quarter and added that cost savings had already helped to drive progress in boosting profits.

But she added: “There has been a recent softening in growth in the short-haul market, as well as continued headwinds from higher fuel and currency costs.

“We are responding to this by reviewing every aspect of our business, especially further capacity reduction, cash management and cost savings.”