The chief executive of one of Europe’s largest regional airlines has spoken of her hopes for a brighter future after recent business turbulence.

Flybe chief executive Christine Ourmieres-Widener, 54, admitted she suffered sleepless nights during the ’rollercoaster’ events of the last few months.

The French businesswoman, who is the only female airline boss in the British Isles, was in the island last week.

She emerged from a meeting at the airport with island government ministers and told Business News: ’Everybody is very excited by the positive changes and the fact we have a new base here in the island and also the launch of a new Heathrow service.

Business News asked her about the last few months for Flybe. The Exeter-based regional airline was bought earlier this year in a rescue deal following poor financial results.

Connect Airways, a consortium, led by Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic paid a total of £2.8m for Flybe assets and operations.

Virgin, Stobart Air and Cyrus Capital set up Connect Airways in December.

Mrs Ourmieres-Widener admitted: ’It has been a rollercoaster for us.

’It meant a number of sleepless nights because it was centred around the future of the company and now I am happy to report we are in a fantastic place. We have a new structure moving from a public to a private company and moving to the future, so it is great news for Flybe.

’We were very close to a difficult situation and there has been a lot of noise in the press because it has been a very complex transaction.

’Managing the business and being with my team is what I like to do. I have a very strong team.

’Because of all the noise it was creating uncertainty for our people, our crews and teams .’

Asked how important the Isle of Man is to Flybe she said: ’I think it is part of who we are and part of our history.

’We looked at our operation and at the opportunity to optimise our network. We did studies (for the future) and the Isle of Man definitely was on our list.

’Moreover we have very loyal employees, for instance captains, who wanted to come and work back in the Isle of Man. They were based in Manchester and Birmingham and wanted to return to the island.

’It is a fantastic crew and at the same time as our decision to start our operation again in the Isle of Man, we started looking at this opportunity for Heathrow.

’So everything combined is just a great story.’

The daily Heathrow flights start from April 21 and Mrs Ourmieres-Widener said that on the first day the flights were advertised ’we had more than 200 bookings without any communication.

’People were just discovering it in the system and booking on it because they want to travel to the destination.

’What it will bring will be one stop to the world.

’People will just connect through Heathrow with one ticket. They will just need tocheck in in the Isle of Man and they will go through Heathrow to connect to so many destinations.’

She was asked about the timings of the new seven day a week service. Flights are advertised as leaving Ronaldsway at 1.50 pm and return flights leaving at 5.05pm.

She said: ’When you are going into Heathrow there are many flights departing in the afternoon to popular destinations arouind the world including South Africa or the West Coast (of America).’

She said the ’opportunities are massive’ for travellers to Heathrow from the Isle of Man.

The new opportunities come from the purchase of Flybe by the consortium including Virgin Atlantic.

The connectivity aspect was a ’great asset’ she said.

Mrs Ourmieres-Widener, who joined Flybe as chief executive in January, 2017, said there was also ’more choice’ because travellers could also link up through Manchester.

During her whistlestop visit to the Isle of Man airport, she also met up with some of the Flybe pilots and crew who will be based in the island.

She said she was impressed, it was her first visit to the island, and she hoped to return soon.

She confirmed bosses will look at the Heathrow route to assess how successful it is, in October, but she is optimistic.

She also revealed the brand name will change this summer and the name will include the word ’Virgin’ in it.

’We welcome that because it will have a positive impact on the awareness and also the Virgin name is fantastic.’

She said Sir Richard Branson did a ’fantastic’ video for staff at the head office in Devon ’to say hello to everybody

’We understand at some point he will come to visit us in Devon.’

Business News suggested it would be good if he visited the Isle of Man too.

She promised: ’We can pass a message to our Virgin colleagues.’