Airline consulting firms

[Fat Clemenza]

Anytime I read an article aboutt he industry's ups and downs, I come across names of consulting firms with links to their websites. When I visit their websites they all boast the help they have provided to major as well as smaller airlines.

Let's say Mr john Brown who's who made a fortune out of selling cookies decides to set up his own airline and for that turns to a consulting firm. How much could he be charged for developping his business and helping him EIS?

[Lucifer]

Could be anything from £25 to £500 an hour, depending upon size of firm, what you negotiate with them, what you require exactly, and seniority of the firm's staff who do the work for you.

I doubt there is a ballpark figure, as everyone's needs will be different depending upon what they can do themselves.

[Fat Clemenza]

Thank you "L":ok:

Any one else that had to deal with consulting firms??

[Cyrano]

The question is a bit open-ended - and the worst thing you can do when dealing with a consultancy firm is to give them an open-ended assignment!

But say Mr Brown has an idea of a few routes that might work and first of all wants a feasibility study: traffic forecasts, suggested aircraft, and a rough indication of an outline business plan for a UK startup airline. Depending on who you hire, how attached you are to having a "big name" firm's logo on the business plan (and how you spec the tasks) I'd say that'd probably set you back £15k-£80k.

Now it looks as though the idea might be a goer so Mr Brown has to take it to the next level: raising money, starting to think about the startup process, getting an AOC (or using someone else's, at least initially), hiring some key staff, and so on. At that point he needs some specialised help (people who've done this before) to get up and running in a reasonable timeframe. And even if the operation is just flying a single turboprop domestically, I'd find it hard to imagine there'd be much change out of a couple of hundred £k by the time of startup (and that's not counting deposits). Not all of that is the startup consultancy, of course, and getting your own AOC would have the potential to add further cost.

Hope that helps a bit. Feel free to PM me if you want more info.

Brgds
Cyrano