A passenger watchdog on the Isle of Man has welcomed news that Flybe is to be rescued by a consortium led by Virgin.

TravelWatch IOM says it hopes that plans to re-open a Flybe base on the Island, from April, will continue as planned.

The group says the consortium is made up of ‘respected airline and aviation interests’ including Virgin and the Stobart Group; future operations will go under the Virgin Atlantic brand.

In a statement TravelWatch IOM says: "Flybe’s extensive network feeding Manchester, including, of course, that from the Isle of Man will prove to be an important part of this move, feeding traffic to Virgin Atlantic itself and its partners, Air France and KLM.

"We hope that plans to re-open Flybe’s base in the isle of Man from 1st April 2019 will continue as planned, in a move which will not only increase employment opportunities here, but bring increased capacity and reliability for its many local customers."