Is Global Airlines just a giant scam?

This video is just my Opinion. Don't sue me!

The delays to get the fleet operational, the weird choice of aircraft, and specific planes, the lack of business case. What on earth is going on?

Lets dive into it.

Called Global Airlines, this start up plans to bring back flying in large aircraft in a big way, with even ambitious plans to develop a fleet of aircraft that potentially rival Emirates - up to 75 aircraft. The ceo of the airline, James Asquith, spoke to media at the Dubai airshow in 2023 stating he wanted to bring back the golden era of flying. And honestly, you can't do a biggest splash to the past with a giant a380!

Looking ahead, Global Airlines plans to launch its highly anticipated flights between London Heathrow or Gatwick, my money being on the latter, and New York JFK in 2025, partnering with Portuguese carrier Hi Fly which will operate the aircraft.

. Previous plans showed a vast route map by the end of this year, and while the deadline might have been missed its certaintly an interesting picture of whats to come.

They will start with a single A380 aircraft that he has already aquired from Doric Avation, and has plans to aquire anotehr three as soon as possible.

And where is this plane right now?

Currently Portuguese city of Beja, where it will undergo flight testing by HiFly, as they prepare the aircraft for global operations.

The end game is a better product for everoyne and a better place to work. Were getting thousands of crew and staff pp,ications, and we have a phenomenal experiened team and passengers love the a380 - there might be naysayers, but there is also plenty of support"

And he actually couldn't have gone to a better place for support hiring wet lease and charter specalist HiFly, which you will recall was the only wet lease operator of the Airbus A380 for many years - and have plenty of experience flying the type - as well as has all the required liscenes.

A smart play to try and enter the market as quickly as possible, before their own fleet of Airbus A380s will come online. And which exact A380s will they see?

UK start-up Global Airlines has taken ownership of its first aircraft. Contrary to our earlier posts, the first Airbus A380 for the airline isn't the former 9H-MIP (006) but former China Southern Airlines B-6140. It has been registered as 9H-GLOBL (120) on 2 February 2024 and the registration was applied to the aircraft nine days later.

Now a lot of people expected it to be the old ex-singaporian Hifly plane, but MIP can't be used because the seats it has on board dont meet certification. 9H-MIP still features the old Singapore Airlines business class seats made by Koito, which have been illegal to use since August 2021.

“The next step is to overhaul and refit the aircraft to our high specification, providing our customers with the best experience in the sky today"

This full retrofit is expected to cost just under $4 million per plane according to their original pitchdeck. That number is dramatically lower than typical industry costs for a full cabin retrofit with new seats. It is unclear how the company arrived at this number. Perhaps it is possible with used equipment, but that is counter to what the company is pitching.

And then thats not the only finacial issue. They say while they will get the aircraft for cents on the dollar, when they ar eoperaitonal they will be a fortune.

An aircraft that cost just $8 million to acquire and retrofit is, by Global’s reasoning, fairly valued at $60 million in its balance sheet. The company offers zero justification for this appreciation in the value of the aircraft. It also appears to drop their value to just $15 million as the fleet grows to 90 frames

Global Airlines said it would status match existing tier members with any oneworld, Star Alliance, SkyTeam or “other major airline” for two years when customers book their first flights this year.

Look at the end of the day this airline really does sound quite good. Only because the rest of the industry, frankly, is run by dinosaurces. Sure there are some innovative airlines like Air Baltic and new startups across the US, but no one is seriously changing the game in such a big way as this.

So the big question on everyones lips is when will we be able to fly onboard these aircraft on an exciting new airline?

Well the Ceo, Asquith remains tight lipped about a firm start date for commercial operations.

"You don't just buy or lease an aircraft and put it in the sky, we're putting a lot of time into focusing on getting our product and service offering right.

"I'm certainly not doing this to become rich. I've put everything I have into this - time, blood, sweat and money - and if l announce a start date and am even a week late, 'lbe criticised.

"But I will say that we are hoping to have an aircraft in the sky very soon,"

However their last update last year on their website - so whats the delay?