MARK PILLING
Blue Fox Executive Airlines founder Michael Lord-Castle visited Paris yesterday and said that investors were beginning to queue up to help him get his airline off the ground.
One of the first comes from the maintenance world: Lord-Castle has signed a $10 million deal with GE-IAI Aviation Services for a spares inventory to support his proposed transatlantic Boeing 767-300ER services. "GE-IAI wanted to link with someone new and fresh and will provide the long-term loan of engine spares. It's a wonderful deal for us," said Lord-Castle. "People are starting to realise that Blue Fox is serious."
Over the past two months other potential investors have begun to approach Lord-Castle, who originally required £65 million to get the airline operational but has already trimmed this by £10 million with the GE-IAI deal.
He has commitments from more than 200 small investors willing to put from £10-500,000 into the project, and is working with London-based financial advisers Stoy Hayward to prepare a prospectus on how this financing could be arranged. And there is a group looking at investing anything up to £10 million ($14 million).
Alternatively, there are four parties that could come forward with all the necessary funding, according to Lord-Castle. One is proposing to supply enough funds - over £500 million - to enable Blue Fox to buy its fleet of seven aircraft outright, he said.
"I am pushing forward on all of these avenues," he said. "The one that presents the best financial package will be chosen." He expects to close one of the deals in the next six weeks.
Lord-Castle aims to launch twice-daily services between London Stansted and New York JFK next spring. The 767s will carry 138 passengers in an all-business-class configuration with 50in seat pitch. Services from its dedicated Stansted terminal to Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles are also planned.
With just under a year to go to its planned launch, Blue Fox has already secured £10 million of bookings from an unnamed New York-based travel organisation, and bookings from a UK firm worth £750,000.
"Paris means a lot to me," said Lord-Castle, "I hope to meet other people who may be able to add value to what we are doing."
Source: Flight Daily News
