company ownership
I suppose the starting question has to be 'why?'. The only advantage I can see for a single owner is addressing the insurance issue although whilst it is possible to escape from the financial exposure by closing a company down it is not always possible to escape from responsibilities as a director so you could be pursued for not insuring to an adequate level for instance. If you had a group of people owning the aircraft company ownership has some advantages in that the operation of the group is then regulated in part by the companies act. Any member doing inappropiate financial things is then breaking the law.
There are downsides beyond the cost although the main one appears to be changing and the final position is unclear. This downside is that as a director using the company owned aircraft at less than 'commercial rate' you are receiving a benefit in kind - rather like having a company car and you could be forced to pay tax on this - our accounting experts might want to update us on the current position with this - currently I am paying £1,500 a year into the company which owns my four person shared aircraft to cover this liablility. What this means is that if I fly few hours I am subsidising someone els who flies lots of hours because I have a fixed cost of at least £1,500.
In general I would advise against buying an existing company. It may have all sorts of liabilities you are not aware of. To get round this you would need a water tight sale and purchase agreement with warranties and this will cost in lawyer time. In addition the warranties may be of little use if you can't track the vendor down after the event or he / she has spent up.
I am part of a company owner aircraft simply because it was company owned before I joined the group and had no choice. A final point - If the aircraft is sold at a profit the company pays tax on this. If the money is then returned to the shareholder - you - you will pay tax on an increase in the share value - double tax.