New Start - Global Airlines
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Is interesting that most of Global's recent new hires haven't updated (or have they deleted?) their LinkedIn profiles to include their appointments to Global.
eg, Kevin Billings, Pierre Madrange, Emma Henderson, Jacqueline Sutton etc.
Is Global struggling to retain talent?
It does appear that there are some new appointments though, including a chap called Liazad Benkoussa who was previously SVP of Procurement and Logistics at QR, and Brian Glazer who was on the Board of Directors of a South African airline called Lift and once worked at JetBlue. There are also one or two non executive director types listing Global on their LinkedIn profiles. Most of the rest of the Global team seem to work at that well renowned travel company, Holidayswap, and seem to do two jobs!
The recruitment at Global continues to baffle me!
eg, Kevin Billings, Pierre Madrange, Emma Henderson, Jacqueline Sutton etc.
Is Global struggling to retain talent?
It does appear that there are some new appointments though, including a chap called Liazad Benkoussa who was previously SVP of Procurement and Logistics at QR, and Brian Glazer who was on the Board of Directors of a South African airline called Lift and once worked at JetBlue. There are also one or two non executive director types listing Global on their LinkedIn profiles. Most of the rest of the Global team seem to work at that well renowned travel company, Holidayswap, and seem to do two jobs!
The recruitment at Global continues to baffle me!
Last edited by lighterthief; 21st Oct 2023 at 17:01.
Global advisory board
Just out of curiosity, I looked at Emma Henderson's linkedin page - it contains lots of activity references but just one solitary reference to Global - her initial appointment 4 months ago.
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A few snippets of information on Global's alleged plans:
Sitting Down with Global Airlines: A380, Economics & Scepticism (aviationsourcenews.com)
Author James Field (QUOTE: 'a passionate AvGeek based in Manchester, U.K, who has been actively spotting for years') doesn't do much to pin Global down and have them corroborate their many wild claims, but he's perhaps gone a little further than the dreadful Times article a fortnight ago by asking about their registration.
QUOTE Liam McKay - Global Corporate Affairs: “9H-GLOBL enables Hi Fly to bring the aircraft to Europe to begin return to service work. In the future, when we start scheduled services, we will bring our aircraft over to a UK AOC.... We are hoping to bring our first aircraft to Europe before year end to begin return to service work. The plan remains to be operating later in 2024.”
NO followup information on AOC progress... McKay declines to provide that. Spring 2024 as they promised seems rather unlikely!
Plenty of over-confidence without any explanation of 'how' from McKay: “We believe by offering an elevated product, and adopting a competitive commercial strategy, we will be able to achieve good load factors on the aircraft.”
That's a statement of the bleeding obvious ! You might also imagine that by, say, keeping revenue far ahead of costs they can expect to make a large profit... genius!
James Field also doesn't press McKay on 'how' and 'why' he expects Global is going to succeed on that where experienced and established carriers have failed:
QUOTE
McKay also noted that at the Routes World 2023 event which happened recently, things do appear to be positive for them: “Also, at Routes, we met with a number of potential partners, with capacity and ambitions to grow during winter season. We will consider relevant route development options as we bring our aircraft into service.”
UNQUOTE
QUOTE
McKay: 'Starting a new airline is hugely challenging, so we understand some scepticism... That said, there are a huge number of supporters for what we are setting out to achieve... Competition is what drives this industry forward and, ultimately, benefits the passenger.' Whilst this does address the concern of scepticism over Global Airlines operations per se, this will no doubt continue to be a theme of the carrier moving forward.
UNQUOTE
Seriously mate, it is going to take a lot more than some enthusiastic fan boys and spotters to fill 500 seats daily to and from 2x US destinations... !
James Field's insightful conclusion is as follows:
QUOTE
Looking ahead, the only real answer into whether this scepticism is founded or unfounded will depends on whether Global Airlines gets into commercial service, and whether it remains consistent in doing so. Despite this, they do seem to be proceeding with things on time as planned, especially through the series of announcements made this year already, which other start-ups particularly in the UK hadn’t made it that far. In this case, we are just going to have to wait and see what happens, but there does seem to be a level of confidence oozing from the team at Global Airlines. But, of course, it’s whether they can put that confidence into a positive & practical solution that gets them into the air, once and for all, to shut down the scepticism.
UNQUOTE
It's unclear what James Field means by 'they do seem to be proceeding with things on time as planned, especially through the series of announcements...'
I'd beg to differ. Announcing a partner for inflight champagne and moisturizer products are hardly the big items that the CAA will be looking at for the AOC.
It's generous of James Field to identify the 'level of confidence oozing from the team' - but all we have seen so far are press releases! I expect that David Kendrick at CAA will be looking for something a little more solid than 'oozing confidence' !
Sitting Down with Global Airlines: A380, Economics & Scepticism (aviationsourcenews.com)
Author James Field (QUOTE: 'a passionate AvGeek based in Manchester, U.K, who has been actively spotting for years') doesn't do much to pin Global down and have them corroborate their many wild claims, but he's perhaps gone a little further than the dreadful Times article a fortnight ago by asking about their registration.
QUOTE Liam McKay - Global Corporate Affairs: “9H-GLOBL enables Hi Fly to bring the aircraft to Europe to begin return to service work. In the future, when we start scheduled services, we will bring our aircraft over to a UK AOC.... We are hoping to bring our first aircraft to Europe before year end to begin return to service work. The plan remains to be operating later in 2024.”
NO followup information on AOC progress... McKay declines to provide that. Spring 2024 as they promised seems rather unlikely!
Plenty of over-confidence without any explanation of 'how' from McKay: “We believe by offering an elevated product, and adopting a competitive commercial strategy, we will be able to achieve good load factors on the aircraft.”
That's a statement of the bleeding obvious ! You might also imagine that by, say, keeping revenue far ahead of costs they can expect to make a large profit... genius!
James Field also doesn't press McKay on 'how' and 'why' he expects Global is going to succeed on that where experienced and established carriers have failed:
QUOTE
McKay also noted that at the Routes World 2023 event which happened recently, things do appear to be positive for them: “Also, at Routes, we met with a number of potential partners, with capacity and ambitions to grow during winter season. We will consider relevant route development options as we bring our aircraft into service.”
UNQUOTE
QUOTE
McKay: 'Starting a new airline is hugely challenging, so we understand some scepticism... That said, there are a huge number of supporters for what we are setting out to achieve... Competition is what drives this industry forward and, ultimately, benefits the passenger.' Whilst this does address the concern of scepticism over Global Airlines operations per se, this will no doubt continue to be a theme of the carrier moving forward.
UNQUOTE
Seriously mate, it is going to take a lot more than some enthusiastic fan boys and spotters to fill 500 seats daily to and from 2x US destinations... !
James Field's insightful conclusion is as follows:
QUOTE
Looking ahead, the only real answer into whether this scepticism is founded or unfounded will depends on whether Global Airlines gets into commercial service, and whether it remains consistent in doing so. Despite this, they do seem to be proceeding with things on time as planned, especially through the series of announcements made this year already, which other start-ups particularly in the UK hadn’t made it that far. In this case, we are just going to have to wait and see what happens, but there does seem to be a level of confidence oozing from the team at Global Airlines. But, of course, it’s whether they can put that confidence into a positive & practical solution that gets them into the air, once and for all, to shut down the scepticism.
UNQUOTE
It's unclear what James Field means by 'they do seem to be proceeding with things on time as planned, especially through the series of announcements...'
I'd beg to differ. Announcing a partner for inflight champagne and moisturizer products are hardly the big items that the CAA will be looking at for the AOC.
It's generous of James Field to identify the 'level of confidence oozing from the team' - but all we have seen so far are press releases! I expect that David Kendrick at CAA will be looking for something a little more solid than 'oozing confidence' !
The easy question would be how much money they have to spend and where it is coming from?
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I'm also curious why they keep referring to bringing this aircraft 'to Europe' - or is 'the first' aircraft no longer the ex-SQ one with the illegal JCL seats parked near Lourdes?
It will be fun to get a Maltese EU A380 permitted to shuttle between the UK and US by somebody who claims to be some UK airline.
Still no news on the money behind it. Fuel prices are going up, economy tightening and they still think they can break even on a 380? Not withstanding costs to get the operation going, no cash to protect suppliers. No company will touch them without prior payment. And Asquith still can’t say exactly why it’s going to be so game changing besides a marginally bigger seat room.
Where is the money?
Comments about money are appropriate. Global Airlines is owned by Holidayswap GROUP (95%) and Asquith (5%), its articles give Asquith complete control and as of December 31 2022 it's listed as a dormant company with assets of £100 and zero employees.
I’ve also been looking at Holidayswap in some depth as I have an interest in the shared property business. Holidayswap does not appear to be a functioning company on the scale claimed (“millions of monthly users, worth £300 million”.) Holidayswap LIMITED is also another £100 dormant company owned by Holidayswap GROUP Ltd.
However it is almost unheard of in the actual travel accommodation business. It purports to be about swapping but the vast majority of properties shown are short term rentals. The “industry awards” it claims are from publications which are in the “vanity awards” business – you basically acquire “trophies” by buying advertising in an online publication, they create an “award category” to match your specific business and you come out top.
To me it sounds as if the story is that Asquith started out with a genuine idea – “Tinder meets AiRBnB” - in 2017. The website was set up from Turkey but did not get much traction. There are a few genuine looking postings from 2017-18-19 (and a sprinkling since then) which are marked as available for swaps. After that there was very little activity until the autumn of 2020 when there seems to have been a burst of publicity that didn’t achieve much (unsurprisingly given the COVID situation).
With HS having almost no actual customers in 2021, after Asquith started Global Airlines, it was necessary to create some substance to go with the claim of “10m users” of Holidayswap. This triggered a lot of work by coders (probably in Turkey) to increase the apparent size of Holidayswap’s client base. It resulted in a massive increase in listed properties (but not individual clients) in winter-spring of 2022-23 when vast numbers of properties were added, whether by soliciting directly from rental companies or maybe scraping data from their websites, but it made the site unworkable. This actually has broken the website, it and the apps don’t work properly and a large number of the properties shown are actually fakes.
I’ve also been looking at Holidayswap in some depth as I have an interest in the shared property business. Holidayswap does not appear to be a functioning company on the scale claimed (“millions of monthly users, worth £300 million”.) Holidayswap LIMITED is also another £100 dormant company owned by Holidayswap GROUP Ltd.
However it is almost unheard of in the actual travel accommodation business. It purports to be about swapping but the vast majority of properties shown are short term rentals. The “industry awards” it claims are from publications which are in the “vanity awards” business – you basically acquire “trophies” by buying advertising in an online publication, they create an “award category” to match your specific business and you come out top.
To me it sounds as if the story is that Asquith started out with a genuine idea – “Tinder meets AiRBnB” - in 2017. The website was set up from Turkey but did not get much traction. There are a few genuine looking postings from 2017-18-19 (and a sprinkling since then) which are marked as available for swaps. After that there was very little activity until the autumn of 2020 when there seems to have been a burst of publicity that didn’t achieve much (unsurprisingly given the COVID situation).
With HS having almost no actual customers in 2021, after Asquith started Global Airlines, it was necessary to create some substance to go with the claim of “10m users” of Holidayswap. This triggered a lot of work by coders (probably in Turkey) to increase the apparent size of Holidayswap’s client base. It resulted in a massive increase in listed properties (but not individual clients) in winter-spring of 2022-23 when vast numbers of properties were added, whether by soliciting directly from rental companies or maybe scraping data from their websites, but it made the site unworkable. This actually has broken the website, it and the apps don’t work properly and a large number of the properties shown are actually fakes.
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Comments about money are appropriate. Global Airlines is owned by Holidayswap GROUP (95%) and Asquith (5%), its articles give Asquith complete control and as of December 31 2022 it's listed as a dormant company with assets of £100 and zero employees.
I’ve also been looking at Holidayswap in some depth as I have an interest in the shared property business. Holidayswap does not appear to be a functioning company on the scale claimed (“millions of monthly users, worth £300 million”.) Holidayswap LIMITED is also another £100 dormant company owned by Holidayswap GROUP Ltd.
However it is almost unheard of in the actual travel accommodation business. It purports to be about swapping but the vast majority of properties shown are short term rentals. The “industry awards” it claims are from publications which are in the “vanity awards” business – you basically acquire “trophies” by buying advertising in an online publication, they create an “award category” to match your specific business and you come out top.
To me it sounds as if the story is that Asquith started out with a genuine idea – “Tinder meets AiRBnB” - in 2017. The website was set up from Turkey but did not get much traction. There are a few genuine looking postings from 2017-18-19 (and a sprinkling since then) which are marked as available for swaps. After that there was very little activity until the autumn of 2020 when there seems to have been a burst of publicity that didn’t achieve much (unsurprisingly given the COVID situation).
With HS having almost no actual customers in 2021, after Asquith started Global Airlines, it was necessary to create some substance to go with the claim of “10m users” of Holidayswap. This triggered a lot of work by coders (probably in Turkey) to increase the apparent size of Holidayswap’s client base. It resulted in a massive increase in listed properties (but not individual clients) in winter-spring of 2022-23 when vast numbers of properties were added, whether by soliciting directly from rental companies or maybe scraping data from their websites, but it made the site unworkable. This actually has broken the website, it and the apps don’t work properly and a large number of the properties shown are actually fakes.
I’ve also been looking at Holidayswap in some depth as I have an interest in the shared property business. Holidayswap does not appear to be a functioning company on the scale claimed (“millions of monthly users, worth £300 million”.) Holidayswap LIMITED is also another £100 dormant company owned by Holidayswap GROUP Ltd.
However it is almost unheard of in the actual travel accommodation business. It purports to be about swapping but the vast majority of properties shown are short term rentals. The “industry awards” it claims are from publications which are in the “vanity awards” business – you basically acquire “trophies” by buying advertising in an online publication, they create an “award category” to match your specific business and you come out top.
To me it sounds as if the story is that Asquith started out with a genuine idea – “Tinder meets AiRBnB” - in 2017. The website was set up from Turkey but did not get much traction. There are a few genuine looking postings from 2017-18-19 (and a sprinkling since then) which are marked as available for swaps. After that there was very little activity until the autumn of 2020 when there seems to have been a burst of publicity that didn’t achieve much (unsurprisingly given the COVID situation).
With HS having almost no actual customers in 2021, after Asquith started Global Airlines, it was necessary to create some substance to go with the claim of “10m users” of Holidayswap. This triggered a lot of work by coders (probably in Turkey) to increase the apparent size of Holidayswap’s client base. It resulted in a massive increase in listed properties (but not individual clients) in winter-spring of 2022-23 when vast numbers of properties were added, whether by soliciting directly from rental companies or maybe scraping data from their websites, but it made the site unworkable. This actually has broken the website, it and the apps don’t work properly and a large number of the properties shown are actually fakes.
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It's more newsworthy and easier to claim everyone who wants to start a new airline is the 'new Richard Branson' as opposed to actually doing some digging around it. A lot of newspapers these days just seem to regurgitate social media stories, so it's a easy win for a quick filler on a slow news day.
Even those two chaps from Southend managed to get a bit of press about starting an airline....
Even those two chaps from Southend managed to get a bit of press about starting an airline....
It's more newsworthy and easier to claim everyone who wants to start a new airline is the 'new Richard Branson' as opposed to actually doing some digging around it. A lot of newspapers these days just seem to regurgitate social media stories, so it's a easy win for a quick filler on a slow news day.
Even those two chaps from Southend managed to get a bit of press about starting an airline....
Even those two chaps from Southend managed to get a bit of press about starting an airline....
From a site called theorg.com.
There is a journalist looking at this....
Board
Same source has this as the Directors... However Companies House updates show only Asquith, Davey,.and Thomas Guy Stolkely as directors. Jamie Petty as terminated on 30 Aug this year.
