Stobart Air sold

RadioRetro

Details at Flying In Ireland... https://flyinginireland.com/2021/04/ettyl-agrees-to-buy-stobart-air/

LXFlyer

Looking at FR24 this morning, all Aer Lingus Regional flights out of Dublin (including PSO) and Belfast City are appearing as cancelled.

Doesn’t look good.

Skuxx

LXFlyer wrote: »

Looking at FR24 this morning, all Aer Lingus Regional flights out of Dublin (including PSO) and Belfast City are appearing as cancelled.

Doesn’t look good.

Reading on Facebook that they have ceased trading with immediate effect, can't seem to find an official source yet though!
I'm sure the news will break soon enough whatever is going on!

Masala

Skuxx wrote: »

Reading on Facebook that they have ceased trading with immediate effect, can't seem to find an official source yet though!
I'm sure the news will break soon enough whatever is going on!

Have they 'ceased' as in gone bust??

Or just suspending all operations temporily ??

Darc19

There was some issue with the finance from the key investor that was involved in the buyout company.

goingnowhere

The are two ATR's airborne, one out of Kerry other out of Donegal, assume they are repositioning to DUB.

All E3xxx flights are cancelled

Got this from a letter posted online. A text grab from a photo, bit of editing to get the spellings right..

Update

Al Staff,

I refer to my Business Update of 20APR21 advising that Ettyl Limited, a company based in The Isle of Man, had agreed terms with Esken to acquire the Esken shareholding in Stobart Air UC. As of 28MAY21… Ettyl advised Esken that its original funding package to support the transaction was no longer available and that it was in discussions on alternative funding options.

Esken has yesterday evening. 11JUN21, stated that it is now clear that Etyl is unable to conclude the transaction to acquire Stobart Air UC on the original terms, or to obtain an alternative funding package within the required timescale. Esken has therefore exercised its right to terminate the contract with Ettyl for the transaction with immediate effect.

In the absence of any alternative purchasers, or any alternative sources of funding, for the Stobart Air
UC business within the timescales required, Esken last night, 11JUN21, advised the Board of Stobart Air UC that it will not continue to provide financial support to the Stobart Air UC business going forward.

Following receipt of this advice the Board of Stobart Air UC has now terminated its Franchise agreement with El and has now terminated its Wet-Lease agroement with BA.

Accordingly all El franchise and BA wet-lease flying is terminated -with immediate effect all flights are cancelled - and the Board of Stobart Air UC is in now in the process of appointing a liquidator.
Regards.
Andy Jolly

Managing Director , Stobart Air

LXFlyer

Confirmation now online that Stobart Air have gone into liquidation sadly, as the sale fell through.

https://twitter.com/JP_Biz/status/1403617506103865344?s=20

jucylucy

Is this the business opportunity Emerald Airways need to start early ops?

Van.Bosch

jucylucy wrote: »

Is this the business opportunity Emerald Airways need to start early ops?

They were gearing up for 2022 and have no planes so doubt they will be ready anytime soon. Saying that there is now a fleet of planes and crew available so maybe/hopefully.

Tenger

Van.Bosch wrote: »

They were gearing up for 2022 and have no planes so doubt they will be ready anytime soon. Saying that there is now a fleet of planes and crew available so maybe/hopefully.

I've no idea if it's even possible or financially feasible; but if Emerald made a bid to take over Stobarts fleet and staff it could be a partial reprieve for all the great people there

basill

Given that Stobart has been teetering for a significant period of time I find the silence deafening from EI and would have expected at the very least a robust contingency plan to come into force almost immediately. Quite simply it has to act now in order to protect its market share. Sending emails to affected customers offering a refund and kicking the can down the road for a rebooking is not good enough. The vultures will be circling and there are recent examples of the speed in which the competition can react.

You would imagine Aer Lingus would have discussed and planned for this scenario considering the pressure stobart have been under, poor management if they havent. Surely they can get a few of their parked planes and pilots on some of the routes quickly (ignoring the airport restrictions like Donegal).

Otherwise it’s brand damage for their Belfast / uk ambitions

kevinandrew

Aer Lingus should be able to operate a few A320 “rescue” flights, at least on the more important services like Edinburgh and Glasgow but in the medium term they have a problem.

If they do nothing, they’ll lose market share, brand presence and that vital transatlantic feed which helps keep those A330s full in normal times. Unfortunately, doing nothing would be classic Aer Lingus, they’ll look at the numbers today and decide it’s not worth it but in the longer term that will prove a massive mistake.

I hope they prove me wrong.

omega man

There will be short term EI operated rescue / recovery flights. To what extent is the only question.

Darc19

Mayo_fan wrote: »

You would imagine Aer Lingus would have discussed and planned for this scenario considering the pressure stobart have been under, poor management if they havent. Surely they can get a few of their parked planes and pilots on some of the routes quickly (ignoring the airport restrictions like Donegal).

Otherwise it’s brand damage for their Belfast / uk ambitions

Why do people make overtly negative predictions that are based on absolutely nothing?

They have said that they will be making an announcement tomorrow. - That's just 24 hours after the event, so fairly obvious that they have planned for the scenario and have something in place.

Maybe a "well done" will be in order tomorrow?

andrewfaulk

Darc19 wrote: »

Why do people make overtly negative predictions that are based on absolutely nothing?

They have said that they will be making an announcement tomorrow. - That's just 24 hours after the event, so fairly obvious that they have planned for the scenario and have something in place.

Maybe a "well done" will be in order tomorrow?

Or maybe people are overly ambitious about the business actually available at the moment and EI know that other operators aren’t going to be too interested in some of the routes in question.. With load factors of 2-3 pax per flight on the likes of the PSO routes, there might not even be a point in wet leasing at huge cost to operate the service, just suspend them till next year like the block of flights announced yesterday

Darc19

Darc19 wrote: »

Why do people make overtly negative predictions that are based on absolutely nothing?

They have said that they will be making an announcement tomorrow. - That's just 24 hours after the event, so fairly obvious that they have planned for the scenario and have something in place.

Maybe a "well done" will be in order tomorrow?

My comments are based on their Twitter feed, check it out. Very poor reaction from Aer Lingus to their customers, their treatment to every single query was was basically a bullcrap copy and paste reply of log onto our website and book an alternative airport / refund, we don’t care if you are stuck between flights / due to fly today. People on hold for hours to the call centre, poor reaction considering they were told yesterday evening. As I said on another thread I have an impacted flight next week yet not even an email from Aer Lingus, I’m luckily that my flight is domestic and I have a weeks notice to sort something out, not the case for all the Belfast passengers. They only put a note on their website before lunchtime.

Is the above not fair criticism? They should have had a full plan on standby, communication ready to be released and customers contacted, plan to bring in more staff to man the call centre.

Let’s be realistic, stobart airways was being sold to a 26 year old with no money and aviation history, if that didn’t set alarms bells ringing then I’m shocked

Nibs05

Just so you know, majority of staff only working 50-60% and working from home, cut them a break.

basill

Darc19 wrote: »

Why do people make overtly negative predictions that are based on absolutely nothing?

They have said that they will be making an announcement tomorrow. - That's just 24 hours after the event, so fairly obvious that they have planned for the scenario and have something in place.

Maybe a "well done" will be in order tomorrow?

Because the initial press release and communications from EI were poor and left the passengers wondering where they stood which was completely unnecessary. Their web page has since been updated but essentially the message this morning following Stobarts announcement was get a refund or rebook. Now there is much more detailed information pertaining to the routes that mainline will operate and those that Cityflyer will do.


Now for the background.......Ettyl was an IOM "virtual airline" that was attempting to purchase the Stobart business. In order for this to be achieved EI had to give permission under the franchise agreement. Presumably the IAA as the Irish regulator of EI and Stobart would have been involved as well. So it is inconceivable to believe that EI would not have been aware of all the various issues pertaining to the proposed sale of Stobart and the risk of the business going bust if the sale fell through given the lack of other suitors. Just last week there were media reports of a police investigation in some of the filings by Ettyl.



So with all of the risks you would think that a contingency plan would have been in place along with associated press releases ready to go.....

L1011

Please take discussion to the newer thread on the cessation: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058192948