Originally Posted by JetA_OK
MOR - I suggest you have a crack at running an airline (or indeed a mortgage lending business) yourself before passing judegment on someone's skills as a businessman. There is nothing "lucky" about making money from Air Nelson or from a mortgage lending business. Running an airline is an extremely difficult proposition at best let alone an independent regional airline competing against a government owned entity.
I don't doubt RI made some significant errors that contributed to the situation OP is now in. I don't know the guy but it would seem his personal style isn't conducive to team building. However everyone should balance this against the realities of operating an airline in the current economic environment (read fuel prices). To paraphrase Geoff Dixon who may not be very popular on these pages but does know a bit about airlines; an airline is a business where it is possible to operate in a monopoly, do everything right and still lose money. Anyone who doesn't understand that shouldn't be in the business.
JETA you must have been sniffing a little too much of the stuff. Yes there is much lucky about running Air Nelson. Were you around when Air NZ pulled the plug on the Friendships. Can you think of any business at all that has ceased an operation and left a bunch of customers hanging in the breeze with NO competition. Air Nsn walked into the regional market with no competition and a travelling public used to sh*t service from the national carrier. You couldn't go from any regional port to a main centre on a 1 sector morning flight for petesakes, you had to climb on board the Friendship and go Rotarua - Whakatane - Tauranga and arrive in Auckland at midday. Ridiculous.
You would have to be a complete moron to lose money with a monopoly, you only have to price your product to cover expenses and make some money. Which is what Air NSN did and they operated as part of the Air New Zealand monopoly very successfully. Inglis got a lucky break, back then pre 1990's Air NZ was a state run inefficient entity and no-one at the time involved with it was interested in setting up a proper domestic operation with appropriate aircraft, so when the Friendships left it was handed to Inglis on a plate. The rest is history.