Fly Me Sweden

[classic crew]

FlyMe Sweden


Does anybody have details about the terms and conditions that they might be offering? I've looked on PPJN but there is nothing about them on it.

I know that they are planning to buy Lithuanian airlines and also 25% of GSS.

Any information IE Pay, rosters, leave and atmosphere would be appreciated.

Thank you

[Iroquois]

Spoke to a mate just 3 days ago, who has been flying for them for about a year, and he says the company will fold/fail within 3 months !

[Gnirren]

Yeah, they're toast I would say. Investors are bound to be fed up by now.

[centerline]

FlyMe was supposed to start 747-400 pax ops (2 ex-ANA a/c on order) as they own 25% of GSS in the UK and can use their AOC. What going to happen to this deal?.... (And what's going to happen to GSS if they go bankrupt?)

[Stingray]

That ex ANA 747 stuff is really just a rumor... i don't know who makes those dream stories up all the time.
But FlyMe started operations in 2004, and was always supposed to be bankrupt within three months. Again I don't know why everybody is so negative about them. At least they started 11 new destinations in spring 2006, made FlyNordic practially give up on the ARN-GOT shuttle are expanding further in spring 2007 with Istanbul, Bologna and Madrid.

Pay is below swedish standard for 737's.

[Rainboe]

Keep well away. They talk VERY big. Rumour the ex-Astraeus aeroplanes they took on are not being used. After winning the bid contest for that airline, it decided not to complete. Preponderance of hot air.

[Stingray]

Both Astraeus aircraft G-STRI and G-STRJ fly now regularly for FlyMe.
G-STRI has still the light blue FlyBe belly, and G-STRJ has the Astraeus stars on the tail, both have the big FlyMe letters on the fuselage.
I have never read an official FlyMe statement about a planned 747 operation, but a Swedish tabloid came up with the idea when Porter (GSS owner) came in as an investor in fall 2006.

[Viking101]

FlyMe have had a lot of strange and very peculiar affairs the last year, involving some Icelandic money laundry. Why would a big investor company enter with that kind of money when FlyMe was doomed from before?

They still lose big money every day, cabin factor of 40-50% and is trying to survive by expanding itself out of troubble.

Also, its the same management in FlyMe as it was in GoodJet. What happened to GoodJet? Oh yeah they disappered...

So stay away from them!

:=

[Stingray]

Viking101: First FlyMe Europe investment company has had a turbulent year in 2006, and not really FlyMe Sverige AB airline. Behind most airlines are some investment companies, mostly we don't even know their names.
That Icelandic money laundering is a typical pprune rumor, I find it a pity that pprune has this negative spin many times...

Cabin factors are above 50%, and as you know with any airline you can not expect specially high ones in November and first half of December.

The ex GoodJet management steps back by the way. And it's not a given that GoodJet went bankrupt because of the management, and even less that FlyMe should go bankrupt just because some of the same people are or were in FlyMe's management.

[Cyrano]

Stingray:

I respect your defence of flyMe, and you are quite right that airline ownership can be quite opaque at times.

I think that flyMe are a relatively small carrier trying to succeed in a challenging environment, and I wish them good luck.

One thing which has differentiated them from other airlines of their size, though, has been the scale of their ambitions.

For example (with thanks to the excellent ATI archive):

summer 2005: Fons ehf, a well-known Icelandic investment firm, takes an 11% stake in FLyMe (i.e. injection of capital)
Feb 2006: FlyMe announces plan to acquire 100% of FlyLAL (Lithuania)
also Feb 2006: FlyMe has another share issue to raise more capital
May 2006: FlyMe "in negotiation to acquire Sterling, and also in discussions for acquisition of three to five other airlines, including FlyNordic" (this was the "mouse wants to swallow elephant" story that made my eyebrows go up at the time :ooh: )
August 2006: FlyMe announces plan to raise more money from another share issue
September 2006: FlyMe announces it is buying 51% of Astraeus
later in September 2006: FlyMe announces that no, it isn't buying 51% of Astraeus after all, and no, it's not going to buy FlyLAL after all either
end of September 2006: Principal shareholder in Fons ehf, Palmi Haraldsson, decides that he is going to buy the 51% of Astraeus, and - it is rumoured - also sells his company's stake in FlyMe
early October 2006: FlyMe announces they are going to buy 50% of the parent company of GSS, the UK cargo 747 operator, in order to be able to start long-haul low-cost flights, with a final decision by year end
November 2006: yet another share issue, this time only 76% subscribed (i.e. supply of new shares > demand)
early December 2006: FlyMe delays the deadline for the GSS decision to end Feb 2007

The FlyMe airline operation itself is not yet profitable: its load factors are well below normal LCC breakeven levels. I hope that it is able to improve its performance and reach profitability. But what puzzles me about the company is that - although it hasn't established itself as a stable or profitable operation yet - it's trying to do very ambitious expansion deals which don't seem to be working out, and - because its actual airline operations are eating cash rather than generating cash - it's having to repeatedly raise new equity (what is technically known as OPM, or Other People's Money) to keep going and to attempt these deals.

That's a summary of my view on FlyMe. As I say, I hope that the airline succeeds. But it does not yet seem to have solid enough foundations to support its very large ambitions.

If you're connected with them, Stingray, I wish you and your colleagues much luck and success. I hope the above explains a little why some (including myself) view FlyMe a little differently to other European airline startups.

Respectfully
C.

[Stingray]

Yes, Cyrano, they did a very bad job with communication last year.
Thank you for the good wishes - I'll just try to put last year in perspective:

It is wrong to announce: we are buying an airline when you only are thinking about it.
It was probably good that they didn't buy Astraeus and/or Lithuanian.
The Sterling story was as far as I got it something the Icelandic guys wanted, and there was a conflict about that with Christer Ager-Hanssen (Cognition), the other big investor in FlyMe. It resulted in the Icelandic guys pulling out, and then Porter (Tesco, CSS) coming in.
Which was probably good. But the way all this was communicated was confusing, and made a chaotic impression.
The swedish media did everything to make that impression even worse...

The GSS project is on the same level as Lithuanian and Astraeus were: it is considered, but no decision is made, which is understandable to me. As far as I know, it was again the media that came out with the story that FlyMe would start a 747 passenger operation, I don't know of any official public FlyMe statement to that effect. Officially it was only said that FlyMe Europe (not the Airline FlyMe Sverige AB) could be buying a stake in CSS.
And it is normal that it takes time to collect all the information to make such a decision, and sometimes it is better to wait a little longer, until one knows more about certain factors.

I believe FlyMe can make it, specially because it is offering what the public in Sweden wants: direct line flights to their favorite destinations at a low price. But i guess by mid-summer there have to be signs, that profitability is possible, otherwise it'll become hard...