May I make a guess that the problem isn't with the technical side of the AOC but with the financial side.
The CAA require a new airline to show they have enough cash to operate with three months without any income and to have a strong enough business plan to last for two years using very conservative measures. All this comes from an EU Directive on the subject. Once you have this sorted they will issue an air operator's licence. You can get an AOC by satisfying the flight ops and engineering inspectors but you can't use it without the licence from the bean counters.