Stingray:
I respect your defence of flyMe, and you are quite right that airline ownership can be quite opaque at times.
I think that flyMe are a relatively small carrier trying to succeed in a challenging environment, and I wish them good luck.
One thing which has differentiated them from other airlines of their size, though, has been the scale of their ambitions.
For example (with thanks to the excellent ATI archive):
- summer 2005: Fons ehf, a well-known Icelandic investment firm, takes an 11% stake in FLyMe (i.e. injection of capital)
- Feb 2006: FlyMe announces plan to acquire 100% of FlyLAL (Lithuania)
- also Feb 2006: FlyMe has another share issue to raise more capital
- May 2006: FlyMe "in negotiation to acquire Sterling, and also in discussions for acquisition of three to five other airlines, including FlyNordic" (this was the "mouse wants to swallow elephant" story that made my eyebrows go up at the time
)
- August 2006: FlyMe announces plan to raise more money from another share issue
- September 2006: FlyMe announces it is buying 51% of Astraeus
- later in September 2006: FlyMe announces that no, it isn't buying 51% of Astraeus after all, and no, it's not going to buy FlyLAL after all either
- end of September 2006: Principal shareholder in Fons ehf, Palmi Haraldsson, decides that he is going to buy the 51% of Astraeus, and - it is rumoured - also sells his company's stake in FlyMe
- early October 2006: FlyMe announces they are going to buy 50% of the parent company of GSS, the UK cargo 747 operator, in order to be able to start long-haul low-cost flights, with a final decision by year end
- November 2006: yet another share issue, this time only 76% subscribed (i.e. supply of new shares > demand)
- early December 2006: FlyMe delays the deadline for the GSS decision to end Feb 2007
The FlyMe airline operation itself is not yet profitable: its load factors are well below normal LCC breakeven levels. I hope that it is able to improve its performance and reach profitability. But what puzzles me about the company is that - although it hasn't established itself as a stable or profitable operation yet - it's trying to do very ambitious expansion deals which don't seem to be working out, and - because its actual airline operations are eating cash rather than generating cash - it's having to repeatedly raise new equity (what is technically known as OPM, or Other People's Money) to keep going and to attempt these deals.
That's a summary of my view on FlyMe. As I say, I hope that the airline succeeds. But it does not yet seem to have solid enough foundations to support its very large ambitions.
If you're connected with them, Stingray, I wish you and your colleagues much luck and success. I hope the above explains a little why some (including myself) view FlyMe a little differently to other European airline startups.
Respectfully
C.