Again, I direct your attention toward the question marks in my post.

I’ll remember that next time I want to slag off Alpha One or Martin Halstead – the question marks will make it all OK! :rolleyes:

Andy

Seems like the Rozzers might soon be knocking on Mr. Halstead’s door!

http://business.scotsman.com/scotland/Airline-run-by–.6153877.jp

Andy

Nice issue for the most part – particularly enjoyed the item on the DC-8 in Spain and on Mexicana

‘In the Spotlight’
Martin Halstead talks about the formation of his new UK regional carrier Varsity Express.

😮

Well here’s the dirt:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article7061160.ece

This weekend Halstead admitted he had:

– Used a fictitious name, Will Gilligan, to pretend to be both the commercial director and a financial backer of his airline. He confessed to sending emails to people purporting to come from “Gilligan”.

– Launched his business with a partner, David Lawrence, who is disqualified from being a company director.

– Boasted of a “consortium” of wealthy investors in the airline who never existed.

– Raised money for the enterprise by luring four young pilots to pay more than £50,000, which went into his personal bank account. All of it has since been spent.

Fortunately, due to the damage he’s done to his own reputation and to others he’s suckered, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Halstead restarting Farsity Express or running another airline in the future!

Andy

Nothing against Martin Halsted in particular, just against madcap schemes… Its very difficult to make good money on a single J31…

OK, look…

Here’s a document I’ve turned up on the web that provides indicative costs of running a Jetstream 31 – note I’m not representing that the document accurately reflects the costs for VE operating a J31 in the UK, but it is indicative of the likely scale of costs:

http://www.cfmjet.com/pdfs/J31_Exec_Cost_of_Ops.pdf

Now that document shows that the hourly direct operating costs of running a J31 is around $680 per hour – excluding crew costs, ATC nav charges, handling, etc (and the landing/parking fees are rediculously low for the UK). That’s about £450 per hour, excluding all the other stuff you also have to pay for. That document suggests that the total cost including all of the other stuff is about nearer $1000 / £666 per hour.

The block time OXF-EDI on a J31 is around 1:20 – so lets say £666 x 1:20 or getting on for £900 to operate the Jetstream one way. How many £49 fares do you collect to make £900? More than there are seats on the aeroplane, given there’s taxes etc in the fare! All the early flights were meant to be £49, and if that facebook comment was true they were only running at 70% load factor.

One week is five north, five south, total 10 flights, 19 seats per flight, 70% load factor. Total revenue from around 130 pax at £49 (assuming a few frees out of the 135 total pax in the first week) £6500. 10 flights, £9000 in costs.

OK, you might come nearer to making it work if you could fill the aeroplane to 100% load factor with everyone paying £149 for every flight, but you’re gonna need deep pockets and a willingness to lose some money before you get there.

Now, as to the reason for VE’s demise – keep looking.

Andy

Sorry, but LOL! :rolleyes:

The doubters, who expressed only their personal opinions (but in some cases perhaps know a bit more about the airline industry than the armchair fanboys – and even maybe more than some wannabe airline CEOs), have been proven right… AGAIN!

Andy

Look, if I took a kid in to do my job – which is in no way safety related – and they talked to a customer of my employer, I pretty much guarantee I’d be fired.

And if you’re really not concerned, then fine – next time you’re on a flight, the captain’s kids can sit in the pilots seat just like they did on that Aeroflot A310. The act of the kid sitting in the pilots seat did not cause the disaster, it was what else happened. You just cannot mess with airplane safety whether it be ATC or actual piloting, because whilst it all worked out OK this time, next time a chain of events starting off oh-so-innocently with a kid talking on an ATC frequency could also end in a disaster. The guy deserves to be fired because, IMHO, what he did demonstrates a lack of 100% commitment to safety.

Andy