Luxaviation cash flow issues

[BuzzB]

The rumblings of cash flow issues are true according to the company web site. In response they say they are profitable but that there are delays in paying suppliers because the money is in the wrong places!!!
Is this the first sign of the wheels coming off this buy-it-all whatever the cost enterprise...who appeared to have unlimited resources?

[Sheikh Zabik]

Assuming this information is correct....it certainly raises a massive question mark over the Competence of the money men behind Luxs gravity defying growth. Is the money pit beginning to run dry?

[Daifly]

Judging how much suppliers were willing to lend to Zetta Jet over the course of only 16 months, I wouldn't be too worried for ages yet... :rolleyes:

[FLEXJET]

... is this the operator who has kept the habit of making late Per Diem payment for... YEARS?

[EESDL]

Imagine a company, in a distant land, which knows exactly how much per dimes you are entitled to as it sent you their - and upon your return you find a summary that has been paid into your chosen bank account .......dreaming

[Ghengis Cant]

Thread creap......but what is going on at LEA...? The revolving door from which crews, manager's and aircraft are leaving spins faster and faster. Most recently the replacement FTM quits after a few months and in walks his replacement....the apparently available ( why?) ex FM of the Challies from Vista. What is bizarre is that this guy left LEA scarcely three years ago ....and how does one put it? Was not exactly a fan of the chief pilot/Legacy fm/ everything else manager.......so seconds out..!..round one guy's .....the fur will be flying.!!!...WEIRD!!!! ( or maybe desperation?)

[BuzzB]

Now we hear CEO of execujet has walked and the main man at Lux Mr Big aka Patrick Hansen has parachuted himself as an emergency caretaker!!

Taken in isolation any one of these things doesn't amount to much .... but one could be forgiven for concluding that the wheels are beginning to come off the Lux bus as it careers at breakneck speed in the opposite direction to all conventional wisdom...

[Sheikh Zabik]

the evidence ( certainly in the UK) seems to be that this Lux buying orgy has achieved the sum total of less than nothing if measured in term of customer experience and workforce motivation/contentment.
It is quite obvious, judged by the mass exoduses from LEA and Execujet of senior highly respected managers as well as very large numbers of their most experienced pilots and operations staff ( certainly from LEA) that Lux has totaly failed to connect with or inspire them as to what their vision or direction of travel is.

The situation is now made significantly worse because, without any discernible help from Lux, management is left to those without experience or , frankly, ability to muddle on with it. As a result, Morale is lower than it has ever been.

The generally accepted wisdom is that the only plan Lux had was to spend gazillions buying up and packaging/ rebranding huge numbers of operations worldwide then sell their shiny branded product with trumpets blazing on a public floatation for vast profits for their bold investors....( who exactly are they..������......??????)

Lux are like an invading army that wins the war with overwhelming fire power ( in their case money) but looses the peace in the ensuing chaos ( because the good guys all left)

If their grand project goes pear shaped.....then it will be another lesson hard learned that those who try to reinvent the wheel always fail.

And, who pays the price? The poor bast£&@s who work on the coal face.

But WTF do I know?!

[CL300]

As long as they think that aviation is a commodity, investors will fail on it.
On the long run, it "may" create some value. They put at controls people without an ounce of aviation knowledge, the worsts are the one coming from industry ( manufacturing).

All the coming IPO's ( LUX, GlobeAir, etc..) will fail either immediately or later. If one entity buys the whole float ( like a debt) and re-market it ( to bottom line investors), the one's that will pay the price will be these ones ( just after the staff).

They have only ONE chance, there is so much cash out there that one might decide to dump this overflow in this endless hole, ONCE.... Then they will make the scheme "as advertised", and this ill be the end of it.

As I wrote just above, you replace LUX, by ANY name with a lot of publicity around, they are following the same pattern, since it is, in the "normal" perspective the only issue out to cash years of work. The other one is the RYR despair (known as the Starbuck strategy), of endless growth at any price, then contraction at certain points in order to aggregate the market. This does not work too well if there is no MASSIVE cash infusion. EK tried it, they failed; many others will and will fail, as long as there is a limiting factor in operation ( slot, fuel, maintenance, taxes, wages, etc..)

Anyway, find a good spot and enjoy while it lasts. One thing to remember though. Nature HATES emptiness; for one good guy that leaves 10 are showing up..repeating the same mistakes all over again..

[Sheikh Zabik]

Good post CL
What sickens me in all this is that the guys behind all this .... The money men in Lux who's brainchild all this was cannot loose! Everytime an aquistion or sale is made or money raised they get their percentage...and it will be a big one.
For sure they hope to make a load more from a successful float and reputations would be lost if it did indeed go pear shaped., but be quite certain that he/ they already made enough millions out of the whole scheme to live happily ever after.

[LGW Vulture]

In all fairness - I'm surprised none of you saw this coming from the very moment this ill conceived brainfart of an idea even raised its head.

:ugh:

[CL300]

I think that EVERYONE whom has a "past" in this industry saw it coming..

[Ghengis Cant]

So how is this going to play out?
Are we seeing the start of a long slow painful car crash or is Lux going to come up with another wizard plan...
Hansen putting himself as CEO of Execujet is surely a sign of pure panic and desperation .

Whilst he's busy trying to hold what remains of execujet together .... how is he going to find the time to discharge his function as CEO of his huge multi company worldwide empire?!!

If I was one of his investors who has supplied him with seemingly unlimited blank cheques Id be asking some questions!!

[CL300]

From outside it might be crash, from inside it might have been planned that way, by a handful of people.. Just speculating..

I can take the job and the money for a year...

[Deep and fast]

From outside it might be crash, from inside it might have been planned that way, by a handful of people.. Just speculating..

I can take the job and the money for a year...

So are you suggesting that there are 2 that are waiting/wanting it to fail and get their old company back for a song?

[CL300]

What is a surprise in aviation ?

Something that works as planned !

Everything is possible, and one thing for sure, there is always alternative options, some are less obvious than others, and vulgum pecus calls it a miracle..

[BuzzB]

According to Sunday Times LEA are suing RBS to recover £4.6 million pounds of losses over what LEA alleges was a mis sold insurance that was sold to protect them against interest rate rises that never happened.... The claim is that they were effectively bullied into buying this insurance!!!!
An alleged loss on this scale could only have been against loans well in excess of £10 million and the suspicion must be that this was to do with their mis judged belief that the future was VLJ shaped as a result of which they bought a load of Mustangs.

The pay scale for LEA pilots is still the same as it was in 2009...
We have seen no benefit whatsoever from any of the Lux razzmatazz and money ( quite the opposite)..so whilst our management go off on Lux management beanfeasts to exotic venues and the Lux zillions are pumped into elaborate publicity and window dressing and partying, those of us at the coal face are just treated with contempt...
Is it any wonder that staff turnover has exceeded significantly over 75 percent over the last five years?

if this litigation is successful, then properly, the greater part of it should be distributed as a one off bonus to those of us who have effectively paid for this "mis sold" insurance...by seven years of pay cuts...

Yeah right.......Dream on...........

[Deep and fast]

Royal Bank of Scotland faces another trial: Company alleges it was "scared" into buying interest rate swaps | City A.M. (http://www.cityam.com/266583/royal-bank-scotland-faces-another-trial-company-alleges)

Anything more recent?

As fr giving cash to the troops, well i don't think anyone would be holding their breath.

[SWBKCB]

"Luxaviation expands US presence with Paragon Aviation tie-up"

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/luxaviation-expands-us-presence-with-paragon-aviatio-443733/

[Sheikh Zabik]

There is something mighty strange about the way that Lux just keep on throwing money in every direction........long after the original target date of 2016 set for floatation ( stated when Lux bought LEA)....
If Lux are serious about proving that their empire is capeable of making any money conventional business wisdom states that there has to be a period of consolodation after the spending stops. This gives an opportunity to prove to any would be investor that all their investment and spending plans were well founded and that the combined businesses can return a profit.
The day of reckoning just gets kicked further down the road whilst they keep spending more on expansion.
Weird

[Valerie66]

anyone heard about the redundancies at execujet and lea? I hear several including the airworthiness manager at lea have been given notice...

[BuzzB]

"Airworthyness manager"????
If thats our Corbyn supporting , self-appointed manager of Political correctness and manager of just about everything else ....that'll be the first constructive thing Lux have done since taking LEA over.
Lets hope Christmas has indeed arrived early this year!

[Deep and fast]

"Airworthyness manager"????
If thats our Corbyn supporting , self-appointed manager of Political correctness and manager of just about everything else ....that'll be the first constructive thing Lux have done since taking LEA over.
Lets hope Christmas has indeed arrived early this year!

Airworthiness manager, I think they mean CAMO and not that the troops on the ground have heard. Place in the unlikely category.

[Ghengis Cant]

I must say one does look on with jaw dropped wonder at who has their hands on the controls of LEA at a local level.....wonder at just what degree of competence Lux really are showing in building their empire. You might have expected them to drop in their chosen appointees to execute their plans...instead of which, with every senior departure of the managers who were the backbone and character of LEA the company has appeared more and more parochial, inexperienced and inward looking....with a structure more like that of a flying club than a big league player.
The fact that staff and managers at all levels have flooded out since Lux took over begs the question as to whether Lux are in fact in this totally out of their depth and just hoping that their big bet miraculously captures the attention of the market when they try to cash in.

[Valerie66]

"Airworthyness manager"????
If thats our Corbyn supporting , self-appointed manager of Political correctness and manager of just about everything else ....that'll be the first constructive thing Lux have done since taking LEA over.
Lets hope Christmas has indeed arrived early this year!

I heard its the CAMO nominated person and the new nominated person will be based in Cambridge. Possibly more redundancies at LEA.

[Valerie66]

I must say one does look on with jaw dropped wonder at who has their hands on the controls of LEA at a local level.....wonder at just what degree of competence Lux really are showing in building their empire. You might have expected them to drop in their chosen appointees to execute their plans...instead of which, with every senior departure of the managers who were the backbone and character of LEA the company has appeared more and more parochial, inexperienced and inward looking....with a structure more like that of a flying club than a big league player.
The fact that staff and managers at all levels have flooded out since Lux took over begs the question as to whether Lux are in fact in this totally out of their depth and just hoping that their big bet miraculously captures the attention of the market when they try to cash in.

Senior managers at both LEA and Execujet UK. Looks like lux have done a really good job at damaging both organisations possibly beyond repair. Would be interesting to know how many people have left the organisation in the last 12 months 40+? 50+?

[Ghengis Cant]

I am told by a reliable source that that almost ninety percent of the staff who were with LEA at the time Lux took over have left, by far and a way the majority ...of their own free will. Up until that time turnover of staff was minimal...and many had been with the company for years.

That statistic is absolutely staggering and reflects the complete failure of Lux to engage with or inspire their staff in their headlong money spending orgy.

[space-shuttle-driver]

How many charter clients/airplane owners have left LEA? Did they attract new customers?

[Ghengis Cant]

How many charter clients/airplane owners have left LEA? Did they attract new customers?
Well according to their web site they only seem to have four Legacy 600s left in UK ....most of which are pretty tired. (I recall they used to boast the largest Legacy Fleet in the world with at least twice that number) So somwhere between Lux arriving and now it seems theyve lost a whole bunch of decent airframes including a couple of tip top 650s.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement by the moneyed punters either then!
I would imagine the euro/gbp gradient is probably doing a lot to sustain the UK operation...Without that who knows what the story would be?

[x933]

"Lost" is a bit of a red herring. An aircraft "Lost" is one that's gone to a competitor - and whilst there have been some of these (Bookajet being the most recent lucky winner of an ex-LEA Legacy) some were owners who no longer had a requirement - or cash - to pay for a jet.

My point being - diminished fleet is not necessarily a sign of a struggling company.

[Ghengis Cant]

My point being - diminished fleet is not necessarily a sign of a struggling company.
Sure.......but its hardly a sign of a vibrant healthy company attracting new owners and business either.
When you look at the rotating exit door that has spun faster and faster at LEA since Lux took over where experienced, highly respected ,long served management and staff alike have voted with their feet it is clear that the Lux message.....whatever it is....has not impressed.
When you hear of the same story at Execujet ( where Hansen had to parachute himself in to run it).... All this really does not give confidence that Lux have not in fact created a monstrously large company that they cannot now control.

[Deep and fast]

Ghengis, what makes you think that those who have left are escaping the new Luxemburg management?

[Ghengis Cant]

Very good point D and F.....
If I read you correctly I totally agree with the sentiment.
Due to the fact in large part that Lux's mismanagement philosophy seems to be to leave the locals to get on with it...... there have been promoted some of the most unlikely and profoundly disliked characters who seem to be given free reign to work their personal agendas to replace the respected guys who have gone. It's almost as if the old guard who have trousered their millions don't care any more and are deliberately sticking two fingers up to their detractors by promoting these guys! Cut off their noses to spite their faces it could be said!
Hardly believable.... but that's the way it looks to me.
Ask anyone who has gone why and the same name/s come up almost every time.

[Private jet]

I can well believe it. But they were stuffed the day they bought those little jets to ferry "Barry & his mates" away on golf weekends, chasing the low end of the market, people who can barely afford it. Tiny margins = lots more work for tiny profit or very possibly (probably) a loss.

[Privatejetbroker]

I bloody hate "barry and his mates" type phone calls, especially on a Sunday afternoon when you are just about to prepare the roast. Or when BA's computers crash and you get people calling up to offer you £500 for a jet to Nice. Anyway back to topic....

Forget about changes of management, financial position, people and aircraft coming and going. For me, in my role, the biggest problem is the ops side of the business. Now you have one central OPS team doing ALL the ops for the group, multiple AOCS, multiple FTLS to consider etc etc. Its a mess, I dont see how they can cope and customer service is suffering as result. On some bookings I have had to do some ops work for them to get the job done.

PS Miles I don't consider Bookajet all the lucky to recieve G-LALE, especially when Air Hamburg have what, 10 new or newish 600/650's no with the ability to do one way or virtual one way pricing if they so desire and no owners to report to other than the big boss and the banks....

[Sheikh Zabik]

PS Miles I don't consider Bookajet all the lucky to recieve G-LALE, especially when Air Hamburg have what, 10 new or newish 600/650's no with the ability to do one way or virtual one way pricing if they so desire and no owners to report to oth
Very interesting to have a broker's perspective.
I have long thought that all this explosive expansion of Lux, claiming to be the worlds second largest.....etc..etc... Is all smoke and mirrors.
They dont own their aircraft and are totaly reliant on hundreds of demanding ultra high net wirth individuals from all over the world ( to whom they are individualy accountable) to entrust them with their precious machines.
if these owners lost confidence their business could disappear very quickly indeed.
what is absolutely clear from the absence of growth of the UK operation since they arrived is that, from an owners perspective, the jury is out.....at best. At worst they arent convinced by the razzmatazz and blustering....and the dripping tap of departing airframes could easily become a torrent.
Owners like continuity and must be unnerved to see people they have dealt with for ages disappearing.

[gordon field]

Very good post Sheikh that sums it up quite clearly. Once the owners of the jets lose confidence in the service you offer and take their jet elsewhere it takes strong hands on management to find a replacement aircraft and very hard work to attract new where's to what appears to be a failing scenario.

[CaptainProp]

They dont own their aircraft and are totaly reliant on hundreds of demanding ultra high net wirth individuals from all over the world ( to whom they are individualy accountable) to entrust them with their precious machines.

Well that's called running a "management company" and it is the same as TAG, Global Jet, BAA, JetAviation etc are all doing (JetA less charters) and for the most part are profiting very well from.

It's when companies start buying and owning jets that things go wrong in my opinion. Selling charters with aircraft financed and owned by someone else is massively de-risking your business as there is always an owner paying crew, parking, maintenance, insurance etc etc while you charge €10-20.000 a month in management fee and taking 10% on all charters sold by your charter department. You don't want to own all that iron sitting on the ramp when charter business is going down.

CP

[x933]

Lucky was a tongue in cheek remark - a 10 year old managed aircraft isn't going to print money against the Air Hamburgs of the world, but they'll do OK with it. Only having one aircraft of any type is difficult to compete in a world of dynamic pricing (unless you have a very understanding owner) but at least they're in the market place.

Ultimately, Relationships and stability are vital to retain management customers. The problem is, you can't accurately put a financial value on either.

Anyone fancy a wager on the next big merger?

[Valerie66]

EJ have lost several aircraft over the past 6 months as well as a considerable number of staff.

[Deep and fast]

In general, there are a lot of business aviation pilots going back to the airlines as GA isn’t providing a competitive package any more. The previous advantages of a decent salary, rotational roster and relatively low workload was favourable compared to the negatives of uncertainty of when you would be home, low pension contributions and no medical insurance(unless your management).

GA will suffer with an experience drain if this continues. I’ve turned down 3jobs in the last 4 months but one will tickle my fancy at some point. :ok:

[Ghengis Cant]

Well one thing is quite certain, the likes of Lux attach absolutely less than no importance to nurturing and retaining their pilots with decent ts and cs or treating them decently.
They really dont appear to give a monkey's and seem to embrace high staff turnover as the norm.
of course....if you are loosing airframes its quite handy that you dont have to make anyone redundant ( cos they already walked!)

[dan1165]

Bunch of clowns. ..

[Valerie66]

Pilots and office staff alike then. more staff have resigned since the redundancies have been announced. could it be the beginning of the end for the whole Cambridge centralised team?

[Opsbeatch]

Bunch of clowns. ..

Spot on...!

OB

[Sheikh Zabik]

with the shameful events in Salisbury and the governments response today the spotlight is increasingly going to be shone on large investments of unknown Russian origin. I wonder if anyone in the higher ranks of Lux might not be feeling a little uncomfortable. The Lux business model clearly relies upon vast and continuing quantiities of pump priming money...and there seems no sign of any let up in the spending and investor support that must surely still be needed to keep the organisation oxygenated........and sustained to the point when it can be cashed in for vast profit (???)

[Deep and fast]

Luxaviation “cmi” should give you a clue, not Russian money...

[BuzzB]

Make no mistake the Russians are likely to be behind this operation. The Chinese came to the party long after the music started...attracted presumably for the same reason as the Russians...The opportunity to expatriate large sums of money out of their countries into a worldwide operation. Our industry with its high value mobile capital assets seems an obvious choice.Look at Hansens previous history. He crafted and perfected his money skills in Moscow and Consider some of his declared associates ....Bogachev for example (Magellan) and there is a Russian gentleman who's name escapes me but seems involved at a high level with management.

[Cat4app]

Cambridge centralised ops cancelled.

Major redundancies ahead.

The slippery slope of Lux self-destruction steepens.


C4A

[Valerie66]

The dispatch team at Cambridge will be reduced to 14 - that's 33 staff out of a job from the current 47...

[BuzzB]

Well if any one had any lingering doubts that the Company had the first clue about running a large GA operation here is proof positive that they are indeed clueless.
By a letter to staff today following the melt down of the "streamlined centralised ops" in Cambridge , they have now acknowledged that this has been a total failure ( with both owners and staff) and have now planned to wind the clock back and de centralise. As a result Ops is returning to Stapleford and both crews and clients will be able to speak to individuals of their choice rather than one phone number ( call centre) type phone lines.
It beggars belief that the company ever seriously thought owners would be happy to deal with anonymous ops staff about their multi million pound assets. Equally crews down route have felt incredibly isolated and unsupported when problems have occured and they have been left holding to speak to the lastest completely inexperienced ops recruit .
This re de- centralisation is an admission that the Lux model does not work.
The industry relies for its success on personal local relationships with crew, ops staff, owners and agents. Almost all the good guys who were the back bone of these relationships ( that used to work so well) are long gone.......including any knowledgable and experienced management.
This train-smash is only just beginning and its a mark of the complete lack of understanding of the architects of it who clearly thought they could wrap it up and centralise it..like they were selling soap powder.
An utter shambles........
So where now Mr Hansen??? ( we thought youd want to have cashed in by now.... Ah, wait a minute, youve done nicely surely on a personal level already through brokering the various acquisitions...no?)

[LGW Vulture]

Well I think we all knew this could potentially end in tears. However, it takes a certain courage to admit you did things wrong.

One can only admire their change of thought.

[Sheikh Zabik]

Very charitable thought LGW but somehow I doubt if theres much sympathy from the scores of Pilots Cabin Crew and Ops who having been dicked from pilar to post since the man from Luxembourg arrived and could take no more..... It is ironic indeed that the very people they now want back to run ops are the great guys and girls who walked away ages ago.
This acknowledgment that centralisation does not work ( even when managed by compliant yessmen managers.....the only type left) goes to the absolute core of what Lux was about.

If centralisation is a failure and you cannot achieve economies by getting rid of local operational centres .....then you employ just as many people as there were before....but with a huge overhead of Harvard MBAs with important job titles to carry as well.

There is another unspoken issue which is that the cultures and work ethics of the different parts of the company are very different. We may all be European but the approach, motivation and indeed language of someone at Stapleford is not the same as someone in Germany, luxembourg or France...

The venture was always doomed to fail.....and, Im just guessing here, Its taken the complaints of several wealthy owners that they had had enough.....for fingers to be taken out of ears....

[CL300]

Is it really a surprise ? To become millionaire in this business you need to start billionaire.. period...When NJE was created they poured something like 2 billions in the pot, loosing hundreds of millions a year to try to reach a computed figure of 200 planes in Europe, and even with the support of uncle Warren this fell somewhat short, and shrunk to around 70 planes; like Vista ( give and take some airframes) Lux is no different except that they tried to run the company like a manufacturing or worse a pure service asset, under one umbrella. This was born to fail and failed. GlobeAir is next on the list ( on a smaller scale, we are talking a total of 20 millions asset) because it is operated without margin in operation ( they save on bogus maintenance, and cutting costs down route, and under paying staff).
The main source of cash stream gone ( or rather the dozen of little streams), Lux will just explode and will be parted by specialized companies.
As far as UK based concept is concerned, there is good and bad, but definitely subtlety and reassessment is not in the active vocabulary.
Now, today is April's fool, so... this act of contrition might only be just a fake..

[Ghengis Cant]

Fascinating......and entirely predictable....Some quality posts here! Spot on CL300!

Standing from a distance it does seem that apart from a few grand ideas and a shed load of money ( from who knows where) Lux were in such a hurry to spend their money and build their empire that all the boring stuff about how to keep workforce and clients on side as well as build a team of competent local managers who knew what the plan was and were capeable of executing it was overlooked.
No better evidence of this is the fact that for years after acquisition, they just left existing management structures in place. In fact, far worse, they upset profoundly those managers who had intelligence, experience and ability, so they all left. Recruitment of replacements was left to those who were left localy...so the dumbing down spiral of lack of experience or ability was allowed to grow out of control.

Small wonder therefor that these remaining local managers have so spectacularly failed to deliver the centralisation Lux craved.
Even now as these managers gibber like monkeys thrashing about for a plan that might work, the guiding hand of superior beings at Lux is far from evident.
The only reason they have decide to go back to the status quo ( and de centralise) is because it is familiar territory to them and the only way, in their limited ability/ experience they know.
You can be sure that instead of dealing head on with core structural issues, these managers will be furiously busying themselves writing up new procedures and manuals and generating loads of paper work to put into effect the status quo. They are totaly out of their depth....and there is no one to throw them a life line.

Maybe this will all explode....or maybe a face saving de-merger could be organised (perhaps blaming brexit).....but what ever way you look at it, its a salutory lesson that history does repeat itself and that those who are arrogant enough to think they can re invent the wheel.....always end up getting their arses well and truly bitten.

Ps no one need worry about Hansen in all this. Hes surely done just fine already out of brokerage commission even if everything else blew up tomorrow.

[Proline21]

excellent read and couldn't agree more that the whole LUX thing is bound to fail. Think Ocean Sky for example...

From the bigger operators Air Hamburg seem to run a stable business for recent years from what it seems

[gordon field]

Is this the same company and same Chnese investors who are associated with the new Executve Jet Centre at London Cranfield Airport?

[hawkerxp]

Jet Aviation to acquire Hawker Pacific | jetaviation.com (http://www.jetaviation.com/news/jet-aviation-acquire-hawker-pacific)

[BuzzB]

........so just how low has a company sunk when it writes to its employees very helpfully reminding them that they are free to opt out of the ( state minimum requirment of course) company pension scheme and save themselves their 3 percent contribution? No mention of the saving to the company too!
a sure sign of desperation that the money is indeed running out.
Why should anyone be surprised?

[Hodin]

........so just how low has a company sunk when it writes to its employees very helpfully reminding them that they are free to opt out of the ( state minimum requirment of course) company pension scheme and save themselves their 3 percent contribution? No mention of the saving to the company too!
a sure sign of desperation that the money is indeed running out.
Why should anyone be surprised?

Could also be seen as a nice move before there is nothing left of the cake ...?

[Klimax]

I'll chip in on this one. The people I've been in contact with, within this company, have not, in ANY way, shape or form, left an impression of good character, that's for sure. People make a company - which leaves this outfit on the sad side of it. Just a personal opinion.

[Sepp]

Lions led by donkeys, mate. Previous CP, I'd follow to hell and back... and that's about it, top tier management team-wise. Several good fleet managers - all chased away, squeezed out or otherwise undervalued to the point of exit. Many good drivers, ditto.

[BuzzB]

top tier management team-wise.
Mmmm not sure I'd go quite that far!!
For sure there were a few really top drawer managers who outshone and contained the dross .... but the vacuum left by their departure just left space that's been filled by the pretenders...( remember it's not just the cream that floats to the surface but also the.........!!)
The ingredients of its self destruction were already there in the company ...it just took the greed of Lux ( and those happy to take their thirty pieces of silver) to whip them up into the perfect storm.
Agree some of the best drivers ( and others too) and was a great place to work...before they saw what was happening and left.
I see the exit door is now beginning to spin for the guys who were recruited to fill the empty seats too.
Big Shame.

[Klimax]

If it smells like **** - it's probably ****! Well said boys.

[uberwang]

If it smells like **** - it's probably ****! Well said boys.

Or Cheese...

[hemel]

I know little about Lux Aviation groups overall financial standing but what I am well aware of is that Lux Aviation UK i.e. LEA are morally and ethically bankrupt as a business.

[SWBKCB]

Luxaviation's 10-year path to greatness (https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/ebace-luxaviations-10-year-path-to-greatness-448489/)

[BuzzB]

No doubting Hansen's ability to tell a good tale.

the brothers Grimm dont hold a candle to this mans creative story telling.

in the meantime.......headless chickens rule the roost here at the company formerly known as LEA as the business tries to reverse back to a de centralised status quo in order to attempt to regain the trust of customers , owners and staff.

[dan1165]

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/ebace-luxaviations-10-year-path-to-greatness-448489/
“We had good capital and good people, and a certain amount of luck,” he says. “In a lot of instances, the timing was right.”

What a joke !!!!!! :}

[Ghengis Cant]

We had good capital and good people

that much is true .......the key word being "had"!!!!!

clearly millions and millions have been squandered with no evidence of any return apart from the pursuit of some grandiose dream from a man who admits he knew nothing about the industry....Lesson number one being that it is a service industry built on attentive and competent personal and individual relationships.....not mega corporation style branding and centralisation.

The good people all left and those of ability who replaced them ( who bought into Hansens rhetoric) are also going or have already gone. Ask anyone what they particularly did not like and , on a local level, one man's name comes up every time......
its a measure of how out of control the whole enterprise is that this man is still able to work his extraordinary personal agenda with seeming impunity...and with such devastating consequences to the company's ability to attract and retain good pilots cc and ops staff.

[EESDL]

Not sure what you guys and girls are concerned about - according to EBACE and the PR machine; all is rosy in Luxaviation Land

[dan1165]

Remember the musicians still playing on the sinking Titanic ...

[Ghengis Cant]

Well if rumour control has it right.........the news is that the penny has finaly dropped with Lux that all is not well with their local management. We have all looked on in disbelief as one person after another has thrown in the towel and walked....all with one man's name on their lips.
seems the face saving solution offered to become a line pilot on a non UK based aircraft doesnt fool anyone as to the true reasons for this.
if this is true ...there are scores of ex LEA drivers who will feel justice has finaly been done by such a humiliating demotion.
A P45 would seem to be a more appropriate and permanent solution to satisfy the many grievances concerning this gentleman.

[BuzzB]

If this is referring to who I think you are Ghengis then I would agree that a P45 is the only solution. This man single handedly ran an autocratic fiefdom that was characterised by extreme selfishness ( bagged all the best trips for himself), lack of technical understanding ( remember the discussions we had about performance and wet runways.... oh yes and under-fuelling in hot temperatures!!!!) and the application of a weird regime of political correctness.
despite all this and many complaints Lux left him to get on with it...as we all formed an orderly queue and left.

[Deep and fast]

If Ghengis is who i think he is, he bagged enough prime trips himself on the 650....

[BuzzB]

One of the strange things about this industry is the way it sometimes nurtures and protects characters who end up in jobs and management way beyond their ability. (The two types often sustain each other) Promotion can be fast and unmerited ..but the fall into ignominy and obscurity can be cruel and even faster.
as the old saying goes ...."Best to treat colleagues well on the way up... because you never know who you might meet again on your way down."
there will be few tears shed if the reported predicament of a certain manager are correct.

[EESDL]

You might be glad to know that the cost savings of Luxaviation not attending EBAC 2019 will be spent on Safety.......

[BuzzB]

https://t.co/DVpVN92fLK?amp=1
This is the link to Hansens letter. Seems a rather unconvincing pre emptive strike to attempt to stop tongues wagging and rumours flying concerning the real reasons for not attending.....which are??

i well recall the extraordinary introductory speech ( if you can call it that!) when a a senior manager from LEA ( as was) addressed the bemused staff of Execujet in Cambridge shortly after purchase of that company.

the "luxaviation way" and its priorities was described in a few bullet points.

to the utter astonishment of all present, safety was about three or four down the list of priorities. Customer Service and achieving customer expectations were of greater importance.

the need to focus attention and spend resources on safety now has a hollow ring to it.

[EESDL]

Sounds like they made the schoolboy error of not putting 'Safety' at the top of every list - regardless - we all know it has to be there, so maybe they fell foul of the 'of course its at the top of our list' trait and wanted to place emphasis on areas Execjet had been slacking on.........;-)

[Hodin]

Sounds like they made the schoolboy error of not putting 'Safety' at the top of every list - regardless - we all know it has to be there, so maybe they fell foul of the 'of course its at the top of our list' trait and wanted to place emphasis on areas Execjet had been slacking on.........;-)

maybe the result of trying to impose the blueprint of a cultural concept from a hotel chain on operative aviation for a ****ton of money...

[BuzzB]

And let’s not forget Lux have clocked up two fatal crashes since the men from Luxembourg arrived....and that the findings of the inconclusive ( and some would say unconvincing) CAA report on the LEA (as was) crash showed a company that had failed to adhere to prescribed maintenance procedures or keep proper records of technical issues.

[G-ARZG]

Dassault buying Execujet MRO...

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/dassault-snaps-up-execujet-mro-network-455160/

Selling off the family silver, or.....?

[sallyb13]

Doesn't sound good. It's not exactly good news after good news for this lot. Ok, they bring on the odd couple of aircraft to their management portfolio every now and then, but I am pretty sure this is just another fine example of one of the many nails in the L U X coffin...
Such a shame

[Ghengis Cant]

This is not going to end well.
Experienced pilots being paid to sit at home worrying about redundancy and Lux UK down to its last Uk based Legacy ( from being the largest operator in the world when Lux arrived with their sacks of money)

[Tinytim]

Confucius the Chinese philosopher who died about 500BC once said
”....The gibbering monkey in charge the zoo....the animals starve.....the people leave..”
wise man Confucius.