Schoolboy launches airline from his bedroom
An A-level student has launched a no-frills airline from his bedroom in Merseyside.
Daniel Reilly, 18, from Maghull, is thought to be the youngest chief executive of an airline in the world.
He was inspired to set up Nexus Airlines after completing a school project on low-cost airlines. He is currently leasing a Boeing 737 plane from Futura International Airlines, based in Palma.
The teenager said: “I started flying lessons when I was 16 and my friends started joking about us buying a plane together and flying people around the world. It was just a joke really but I took it a bit more seriously and decided to look into it.
“I’ve always been interested in aviation so I decided to do my A-Level business studies project on setting up an airline. I called round a few airlines and asked how they had done it and I slowly realised it was quite achievable.”
Daniel, who attends Deyes High School in Maghull, showed his project to a financial adviser who found backers for the business.
Initially the airline will operate services from Liverpool John Lennon Airport to Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura from its new headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Customers will be able to book flights – which cost from £50 one-way – from Friday, with the first flights taking off on November 1 this year.
In the meantime, the new airline chief is awaiting the results of his A levels in Business Studies, English Language, Sociology and General Studies.
He said: “Most of my school friends are now going off to university but I’m in charge of an airline.
“I don’t know if I will be the next Richard Branson but I certainly wouldn’t say no.”
(Sorry about not knowing about the other threads) 😮
Just some info for you
By: tommyinyork - 21st July 2005 at 19:46
If i had my way i would start up my airline from Humberside Airport having an MD83 aircraft and call them Eclipse Airlines and paint my planes tail’s in a dark blue with a picture of an eclipse.
By: andrewm - 21st July 2005 at 19:41
Is it initiative? There may be a reason why there are so few “low cost” routes that involve 8 to 9 hour round trips. I’m dashed if I can think of one but they don’t appear to feature too strongly in either Ryanair’s or easyJet’s network of routes!
Globespan do it and have profited from it.
By: David Kerr - 21st July 2005 at 19:24
I admire the lads initiative, and wish him all the best
Is it initiative? There may be a reason why there are so few “low cost” routes that involve 8 to 9 hour round trips. I’m dashed if I can think of one but they don’t appear to feature too strongly in either Ryanair’s or easyJet’s network of routes!
By: steve rowell - 21st July 2005 at 09:00
I admire the lads initiative, and wish him all the best
By: KabirT - 21st July 2005 at 02:56
my sincere luck to him but what is this started to become a trend or something?
By: andrewm - 21st July 2005 at 00:22
He’s a scouser so can forgive him for not having a “full” grasp of english :p (no offence to anyone on board from liverpool)
By: Flex 35 - 20th July 2005 at 22:39
Hopefully his lack of vocabulary won’t stand in his way. 😉
Flex 35
By: LBARULES - 20th July 2005 at 22:20
Well ‘ultimately’ that may be the case ;).
(Another word I cant stand, my Science teacher used all 3 constantly!).
By: andrewm - 20th July 2005 at 22:18
Basically LBARULES you obviously have basically what I would call, obviously, issues with people who basically, and sometimes obviously, say basically and obviously!
By: LBARULES - 20th July 2005 at 22:00
LOL – Thought I was the only person who got annoyed with people who constantly said ‘obviously’ and ‘basically’! :D.
By: David2386 - 20th July 2005 at 18:43
Heard him on the Colin and Edith show on Radio 1 today, (Dont know why he was on that!), seems like a pretty down to earth guy, though hes one of these annoying ones that says ‘obviously’ in every sentence ;).
Yep, I heard him on RTE 2FM this morning being interviewed, didn’t notice to many ‘obviously’ s but lots of ‘basically.’ Basically we rang them, they basically said this, we basically heard that, we basically did that and basically here we are :rolleyes:
Basically we live, we die. 😮
Good luck to him.
By: T5 - 20th July 2005 at 18:11
I can’t see why it won’t take off. If he is able to offer destinations at such low fares, then I’m sure it won’t prove to much of a problem in filling an aircraft.
By: LBARULES - 20th July 2005 at 17:23
Heard him on the Colin and Edith show on Radio 1 today, (Dont know why he was on that!), seems like a pretty down to earth guy, though hes one of these annoying ones that says ‘obviously’ in every sentence ;).
He says they may be planning routes to other untapped loco markets in the future (Cyprus, Greece and Turkey were mentioned.)
Good luck to him!
By: FlyMonarch - 19th July 2005 at 23:02
well i have just seen him on the local news, on itv, about the phones opening on friday.
I say well done and the best of luck to him!!!
an i hope they go far as im sure they will
By: Mark L - 19th July 2005 at 22:22
Here you go Flex:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/856792/L/
A Futura 738 at LPL, as thats all we’re going to see if this gets going!
By: Flex 35 - 19th July 2005 at 22:13
I think if he charged reasonable prices and served destinations which are seldom covered from LPL he could be successful. But I will believe it when I see that B738 on LPL’s ramp! 😉
Flex 35
By: LBARULES - 19th July 2005 at 21:36
Well (Sorry to bring this back to the same old topic!), Jet2 have spotted a market with 3x weekly services to TFS from LBA starting this winter, I dont think LPL is exactly overweighed with charter flights either, you have to remember the planes will be leased from Futura anyway, based in the Canaries, so aircraft utilisation will be less of an issue.
By: DashQ - 19th July 2005 at 20:27
Good luck to him, but I’m not very optimistic about it. The fares will be significantly higher than other larger and more established low-cost airlines. The difference from other low costs appears to be the slightly longer routes to the canaries, and these longer routes will mean that less sectors can be flown by each aircraft per day. This will also mean higher costs and therefore higher fares. It depends on whether people will be willing to pay significantly more to fly to these slightly further destinations compared with easyJet’s mainland Spain/Portugal destinations for much less.
They will also have the charter seat-only flights as competition which already offers services to this type destinations.
On the news he was saying how he thought there was a gap in the market for these services but I don’t really see it.
By: bmi-star - 19th July 2005 at 16:40
Not gonna happen sorry
By: Comet - 19th July 2005 at 08:57
I say good luck to him. I was fascinated to read his story in the newspaper and I hope he makes a success of this.
Sign In
July 18, 2005 at 7:33 pm