FlyBe website collapses – customers annoyed and in the dark

UPDATE: On the morning of Tuesday 2 the website some functionality returned, including search and booking.

European budget airline FlyBe is struggling to maintain its online presence after a series of problems over the past few days.

The main website appears have been having difficulties since at least midday (GMT) on January 31 when Twitter users started complaining about difficulties gaining access to search, booking and check-in facilities.

Although the site was noted to have re-emerged earlier today (February 1), functionality has since disappeared once again.

The website is regularly one of the top five most visited airline sites in the UK [Hitwise].

The timing for the UK-based carrier couldn’t be worse following reports last week that pre-tax profits had slumped by a third for the 12 months to March 2009.

A brief message on the homepage, which appears periodically, says:

“Due to technical problems which we are experiencing you will notice that our website looks a little different. However the ability to make flight bookings and benefit from our great value fares should be unaffected, however if you are experiencing problems please phone our call centre on 0871 7002000.the site is having technical difficulties but tickets could still be booked.”

However, more complaints have appeared on Twitter as increasing numbers of customers attempt to access the site and been frustrated at a lack of information.

The carrier flies around 194 routes around Europe to 66 destinations, a number of which were acquired as a result of snapping up the ex-BA Connect brand.

Officials have yet to respond to enquiries regarding the website problems.