Jota Aviation
 

Morning all. Does anyone know the latest concerning Jota Aviation & their 146s? Some suggestions the operation may have been shut down (Twitter page no longer exists).

Thanks,

From what I Understand Jota have ceased trading on Friday.

Seems their CEO was a colourful character Simon Dolan (anti-vax, Trump, brexiteer, David Icke associate, Monaco tax evasion)

Sadly it does look as if that may be the case.

The three freighters have not flown for a few of months and of the two passenger aircraft only G-JOTS has been in service recently, with G-JOTR seemingly out of service at Cranfield. Five days ago 'TS also positioned to Cranfield. Last July they had said they wanted to rebrand themselves as a passenger charter airline with "narrow body" aircraft for independent tour operators but maybe the continued uncertainties in the market made it too difficult to obtain the necessary new investment.

Stobart seemed to feel that they were of no value to SEN and the operational strictures there had caused them to decamp to Biggin Hill.

.... and it "seems" you have a particular axe to grind. Simon Dolan put a shedload of money into that company to keep it going when many would have given up I suggest.

Looks like the Eastern EMB will be busy of a Premier League weekend! :eek:

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No axe. Was replying to a previous poster.

I did say "seems", however

-He has written a book praising Trump's achievements published in 2021

-Co produced a film "Renegade" on 2019, about David Icke views and campaigns and co produces with Icke
-in 2020 started proceedings against the UK govt re covid and opposed the Pfizer vaccine whilst stating photos of dead bodies with covid were propaganda

An ardent Brexiteer who lives in Tax haven Monaco.

Hopefully some of the staff can take employ at British Airways Cityflyer along the road at London City

Thanks to those who have replied. Shame to hear, we saw Jota occasionally at ABZ, flying to LSI obo Loganair. Was aware they did football charters. Best wishes to those affected.

Leaves G-LUXE as the sole survivor of UK flying 146s.

So sad, I really liked this little airline. I flew them on Dublin/London City quite a few times.

They failed a good space in the market having ARJs/146s, the ability to pick up the slack into LCY if other carriers needed them. They also did a lot of work for HOP too

Having attempted to make contact with JOTA on a couple of occasions over the last 12mths or so myself, it was particularly disappointing not to receive any meaningful reply/response from them, so I can't honestly say that I've got a lot of sympathy for them if they have gone under; I do feel sorry for the crews and frontline staff though and hope that they can find work elsewhere.

Yes I'd heard professionally that the staff were excellent and very personable and professional.

Sad indeed

Doesn’t the Formula 1 set up operate G-OFOM?

Will this affect the Jota Sport racing team? Or are they not related?

Not surprised!

Why did Jota (seemingly) close ? I can understand spring 2020 until late 2021 may have been awful... but aviation in Europe seems to be in a fairly robust state of health, so there should be plenty of profitable work available now.

Tax write off, stories emerging Dolan had links with Liz Truss who used Jota to fly to Belfast out with procurement and and proper security vetting. More Govt contracts awarded to mates. Whilst Govt pay to repaint the UK titan A321 scheme as the current one being used elsewhere

As far as I'm aware even pre-COVID they weren't profitable. In 2019 they lost something like £3 million. They were only kept alive by their CEO who was able to continue pumping money into them.

Me too, I took interior photos inside one, just before Lockdown, which bemused the crew, I Guess loss of the BACF subcharter business was key to them. I see Jota were through London City about a month ago, from Liverpool, likely a Football team charter, this might be the last BAe146/RJ operation through the airport. End of an era.

Think you guys might be missing the main point here which is an oversight in the Brexit negotiations meant they couldn’t operate freight flights in Europe on competitive terms with the European based freight operators. Seeing as these flights were the ones that operated most the week they probably couldn’t survive on just football charters at the weekends. The freighters have been for sell for months now.

Hardly an oversight, it’s ‘what we voted for’. Sympathies with the crew but sounds like the owner was possibly like another turkey that voted for Christmas