I don't wish to throw cold water on people's ideas but I do think a good old injection of realism is required here...
Are any of you aware of what it takes to set up and maintain a UK public transport operation. I'm guessing 'No'.
The Cessna Caravan is an amazing workhorse, works well for Fedex, but the chances of it getting public transport, IFR, single engine, single crew approval in the UK is not going to happen, despite what Bob Crowe at Cranfield will tell prospective buyers...
I thought about exactly the same thing, running cargo from E.Mids to Edin.
Obviously I didn't bother in the end which is a shame because I was on to a real money maker
You reckon! - Go and take a look through the window of BAC's ops room in Horley...and the UK Postal Service have insisted on CAT III jet's for a while now so the sort of business your looking at getting is what people are paying for to go by road at half the cost...but, in the whole big scheme of things, all this is just a minor point.
Getting a UK AOC and Route Licences issued is not just about getting the finance and throwing it at the SRG. The CPG will insist on approx. 3 months finance with no income behind you for a start. Here's a very rough list of just your day to day costs of running a P/T opertion:
Experienced AOC Post Holder Salaries - (won't get your AOC without these people!)
Crew Training and Renewals
Aircraft Insurance
Eurocontrol Fees
Airport Fees
Operations/Crew Control/JAR Ops Quality Systems
Maint. Contracts
Handling Contracts and I'm sure others can add to this....
The cost of the AOC itself is wide open - you will be charged for extra man-hours for anything the CAA insist on you re-writing/adding, the extra cost's alone have amounted to more than £15k in the past. And all this before your general business cost's and advertising/
PR...
There are very few enthusiast's that are able to make a real go of it, Mr Branson and Mr Thomas (Air Wales) are 2 that spring to mind but both have huge personal wealth and business success behind them and even Mr Thomas has fallen foul of getting the wrong people to run his business for him recently that has cost him a small fortune, alot of it his own money.