In addition to the above post, I’ve heard so many horror stories from the staff who worked there. Apparently:
After the acquisition of Blink, UK staff were told to prioritise booking from the French office, despite these being priced wholly inappropriately and on most occasions losing the company money.
The sales in France could only say “yes” to customers with no understanding of what the costs were. They were also paid a bonus on every sale. Flights in the middle of the night: sure, cheap price. Elaborate catering: here, free of charge. Your flight has a slot delay? Here, have a 100% refund and a discount off your next flight. You don’t like your British pilot? Ok we will fly another pilot in for you.
The Blink model was thrown out, and most of the senior management left, Chief Pilot, followed by Ops Manager, Sales Manager, HR Manager, Finance Manager.
The Wijet project was simply a means to attract funding to the CEO’s investment firm. When the new UK CEO was asked by one of the pilots, why the HondaJet, he replied “because of the dazzle dazzle”