Acquisition of Minority Shareholding

Flybe Group plc

("Flybe" or "the Group")

Acquisition of Minority Shareholding in Finnish Aircraft Maintenance

Flybe, Europe's largest regional airline, today announces the purchase of a minority interest of 7.4% in Finnish Aircraft Maintenance Oy ('FAM') from existing minority shareholders, and a further 6.3% interest from a subsidiary of Finnair for a total consideration of €358,000 (£295,000 at an exchange rate of €1.2358) to purchase gross assets of £1,055,000, being 13.7% of the £7.7m gross assets reported in FAM's latest-available audited accounts, at 31 December 2010.

FAM was previously jointly owned by Finnair, Finncomm and these minority shareholders; the acquisition of Finncomm was announced by Flybe on 1 July 2011 as part of a Joint Venture with Finnair that is now Flybe Nordic. Under the terms of that Joint Venture agreement, Flybe acquired 46.3% of FAM whose business is aircraft maintenance.

With the purchase of the minority interest and the small Finnair stake, Flybe owns 60.0% of FAM while Finnair owns 40.0%, the same ratio as the Flybe Nordic joint venture. Flybe and Finnair have transferred FAM to the legal ownership of Flybe Nordic in order to bring the FAM maintenance business into the same ownership structure as Flybe Finland, the airline it predominantly services. This reorganisation of the FAM business is not expected to have a significant impact on reported profits for the year ending 31 March 2013.

Jim French, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Flybe, commented:

"Flybe UK has a well-established and successful Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul operation in Flybe Aviation Services, which last year maintained more than 200 aircraft, 63% of which were for third party customers. Bringing FAM under the ownership of Flybe Nordic will enable us to service our existing fleet as well as the additional 12 Embraer aircraft that Finnair are expected to transfer into the Flybe Nordic joint venture with effect from October 2012, subject to the successful execution of the MOU announced on 22 May 2012."

8 June 2012

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