I assume that the CAA who, either in economic regulator mode or in safety regulator mode, or both, have the responsibility for preventing this kind of thing, adopted their usual posture that it's nothing to do with them?
They have presumably found some miniscule technicality that lets them off the hook of regulatory failure, once again?
The CAA is required by the law under which they operate to ensure that people setting up quasi/pseudo-airlines with no finance or knowledge do not hire AOC holders to fly for them, while hauling in money from advance sales with no prospect of the services being delivered before bankruptcy intervenes.
Even if the operation is well-funded and kosher (few are) the hirer - the pseudo-airline - is required to show the level of knowledge, expertise and resources needed to exercise effective safety oversight of the AOC holder, ie to audit every technical aspect of the operation very thoroughly indeed and keep on doing so..
That the CAA did nothing effective, it appears, is no surprise. They are focussed solely on collecting extortionate fees for issuing approvals/licences/whatevers on behalf of EASA, and then delaying things as long as possible while incompetent Inspectors/Surveyors/Whatevers display their amost total ignorance of the rules they seek to impose. I have the impression that many end up there because they are unemployable in the industry.
The rule of thumb used to be that anyone starting an airline, or a quasi-airline, pseudo-airline, call it what you will, had to show the CAA real, in-the-bank, unencumbered working capital of 6 months worth of running costs, fixed, semi-fixed and variable, for the planned operation, regardless of sales income. That was a pretty accurate forecast of the minimum negative cash flow of a new start-up, regardless of the entrepreneur's fantasies about income expressed in the technicolour wonderland of MBA-style spreadsheets.
Proper working capital is a safety issue just as much as an economic one.
As many have pointed out above, this delusional lunatic has form. He did the same in Jersey a few years back. Baby Branson needs to do time on a ramp cleaning aircraft and perhaps learning a thing or two.
Were the CAA out, having a group hug in the subsidised restaurant on the day they let this one through, again? Or perhaps they felt the need for some team-building? No, silly me, it was tea-time and they had all gone home.
Last edited by Capot; 14th Mar 2010 at 18:13.