Last week, unusual Airbus A380 airline startup Global Airlines operated its first charter trip in partnership with Hi Fly, a roundtrip from Glasgow (GLA) to New York (JFK). This week, the airline is operating its second charter trip, from Manchester (MAN) to New York (JFK).
Not a whole lot about this operation made sense before the first charter flight was operated, and even less about this operation makes sense after the first charter flight was operated.
In recent days, I’ve had several discussions with various industry folks, and we basically all have the same question and confusion. So let’s talk about that a bit.
In this post:
Global Airlines has proven us wrong… planes can fly
Many of us thought that Global Airlines would never take off, because the business case for the carrier never made sense. An airline exclusively flying A380s across the Atlantic while bringing back “the golden age of travel” doesn’t exactly sound like it adds much to the market. Let’s not even discuss how at one point the airline was going to have a “gamer class,” for those into video games.
So those of us who thought the airline would never operate flights were wrong. However, let’s be honest — what we were really wrong about is that people would be willing to light millions of dollars on fire, for zero apparent reason.
Last week’s transatlantic charter flight had fewer than 100 people on it, while this week’s charter flight reportedly once again has fewer than 100 people on it. This is a small percentage of the A380’s capacity. Never mind that the airline offered hugely discounted fares.
What has Global Airlines actually proven with these flights? The reviews of the onboard experience have been largely negative, to put it mildly. We’re talking about planes with super outdated interiors, no functioning seat back entertainment, outrageously slow service, lukewarm food, and seats that are partly falling apart.
Furthermore, Global Airlines hasn’t actually done any of this under its own air operator certificate — instead, the airline is partnering with a Maltese subsidiary of a Portuguese aircraft wet lease operator.
Heck, when CEO James Asquith was asked prior to the inaugural flight what was next for the carrier, he joked that maybe the A380 will be turned into a spa, and said he doesn’t know what the future holds:
“Who knows what happens tomorrow, who knows, we’ll see. Everyone said we wouldn’t get this far, right, including yourself, so let’s see. I think we’ve been pretty open and transparent with the journey, the difficulties, the problems, the challenges. Maybe we’ll turn the aircraft into a spa next.”
For that matter, the airline is no longer even pursuing an air operator certificate, but instead, plans to keep partnering with Hi Fly.
I can’t even fathom the amount of money that’s being lit on fire here, between the fuel bill, parking an A380 for several days at JFK, contracting out to Hi Fly, and more. It’s also not clear how operating two charter flights that very few people want to take, gets the airline any closer to having a business model and having a steady revenue stream.
What’s the motive for all of this, and who is funding it?
I’ve been following this industry for a long time, and I’ve seen my share of funky “airline startups.”
Some are legitimate scams. For example, Baltia comes to mind, as it acquired a Boeing 747, and for decades pretended it would imminently launch operations, with no intention of actually doing so. Some people lost their life savings through this, and others went to jail.
Then you have some airline startups that just seem to be people who are very passionate but who don’t actually plan to launch operations, and don’t defraud anyone. Global Ghana Airlines comes to mind.
But here’s the thing, Global Airlines is actually sort of the opposite of Baltia — Baltia spent years asking the public for money without actually operating a single flight, while Global Airlines is operating (money losing) flights, and isn’t publicly asking people for money.
What makes this whole operation so bizarre is that no one can actually figure out who is funding it. Like, I have some good industry sleuth friends, and no one has the slightest clue who is pouring millions into this operation.
James Asquith is the 36-year-old guy behind the airline. I don’t know him personally, and I get the sense that he’s just sort of trying to live out his childhood dream of starting an airline, in the strangest way possible.
I can’t wrap my head around what’s going through his head, though. Is this all going exactly the way he planned, and he’s happy with the status of things? He’s definitely lashing out at “haters” a bit more, and often gives non-serious answers when asked about the future of the airline.
I should mention that there are reports out there that Asquith is worth more than £180 million. I have zero insights there, but I don’t see any credible reason to believe that’s even remotely accurate, and that he’s funding the operational himself.
The whole basis for that number seems to be a theoretical valuation of Holiday Swap, a company that Asquith started, and we have reason to believe that some liberties were taken when it comes to that company’s valuation.
But yeah, there are so many questions here. Who is funding the operation, why, and how much longer will they be happy lighting money on fire? After all, come next week, the two charter flights will be over, the airline will be poorer, and it will have an A380 that it needs to do something with.
Bottom line
To Global Airlines’ credit, the airline has operated its first flights with passengers, in partnership with Hi Fly. That’s awesome, since many of us didn’t think it would happen. However, the airline clearly did that at a huge loss, as both journeys so far sold very poorly, and the reviews haven’t been great.
So that raises the question of what’s next for the airline, and who is funding the operation. The company’s CEO is basically just joking and saying “we’ll see” when asked about what the future holds. When we see these strange airline startups, it’s usually easy enough to figure out who is behind it, and what their motive is, even if some people refuse to accept reality.
However, in this case, I haven’t come across a single person who actually has a good idea of what parties are funding this, and to what end.
Anyone have any insights into Global Airlines’ finances?
Money laundering until proven otherwise
Throwing it out there that he is simply trying to make this work as a dream project and if it doesnt he either has friends/investors that he doesnt care about if/when they lose all their money and he is putting up some of his own funds not worried about a loss because he probably could take the losses and offset a lot of income tax he probably owes from other investments. Simple.
I am curious about the why of this whole thing.
Wasn't the flight invite only (but you have to pay)?
Then again, there was Fyre festival. The goal wasn't the product it was about spending money "putting the product together". I'm guessing this was what it was all about. Having fun, feeling like you are working, feeling important, telling people you're making this great airline. That could be fun I guess if you didn't really care if it made money.
On the subject of both this and Baltia, the founders correctly surmised that actually flying is very expensive. So why not start an airline that just never flies? Think about it, you get all the capital from gullible VCs and techbros, but don't have to spend the money on actually moving butts in seats. You can spend it on much more worthwhile things like swanky trips to Dubai for yourself and your friends. It's a hell of a way to run an airline.
HolidaySwap doesn't seem credible in the slightest. I'd be willing to bet money that all of their social media has paid bots/followers as all the posts have super low engagement. And for a company that's allegedly worth £100m+, there's under 80 trustpilot reviews and not a lot else about it on the internet.
His off the cuff remark about the next flight being a spa was strange until I saw the founder of Onlyfans is investing and I think was onboard, could he just do charters for the “mile high club”!
There are a lot of red flags and dead ends when trying to investigate a bit into this companys background and history.
Futurecraft Ventures for example. A Dubai based company invested in both Asquiths ventures. But even to find information about the people behind Futurecraft is difficult.
DVC Capital, another Dubai based company, has investments into Global Airlines. Who are they? Difficult to say. Its a "Family fund" but by whom? And how much money...
There are a lot of red flags and dead ends when trying to investigate a bit into this companys background and history.
Futurecraft Ventures for example. A Dubai based company invested in both Asquiths ventures. But even to find information about the people behind Futurecraft is difficult.
DVC Capital, another Dubai based company, has investments into Global Airlines. Who are they? Difficult to say. Its a "Family fund" but by whom? And how much money have they sunk into Global?
Ash Pournouri, the former producer and manager for Avicii, has also invested in Global. Why? Who knows...
But whatever trail you try to pursue, it leads to shady companies or middle east based shell companies.
Which credit card gives you top status at this airline? Bank of Nigeria?
If they want to fill it up and make $$ as well, they for now should be flying NY-TLV-NY, only prob is HySky flys that route via OTP so doubtful they want to do it, or maybe theyd jump at it
Looks like a big money laundering scheme.
James Asquith has been making fraudulent claims about how amazing this airline will be. Better than Air France La première, Qatar Qsuites or Etihad residences. What a fiasco. The product looks awful. Two years to prepare. Lol.
The money is from the Middle East, we have told by multiple people. Simon Calder says in an Independent article today that it is from Dubai. Exactly who in these places is a different question but presumably state-backed.
'Why' is a totally different question ....
Before the airline started, James reached out publicly and privately via mostly his instagram channel to potential investors, promising a huge return on an investment of 10K minimum. Not sure how many people went/fell for his promises, but I’m sure that accounts for some of these funds.
I know one thing for certain. You're not going to get a bunch of losers with no entrepreneurial sense (that's 99.9% of the readership of this blog) to comment intelligently on this question.
99.9% of the readership of this blog could not start a McDonald's in middle America, let alone an international airline.
99.9% of the readership of this blog doesn't know a thing about business. They have hypotheses which are laughably wrong but they...
I know one thing for certain. You're not going to get a bunch of losers with no entrepreneurial sense (that's 99.9% of the readership of this blog) to comment intelligently on this question.
99.9% of the readership of this blog could not start a McDonald's in middle America, let alone an international airline.
99.9% of the readership of this blog doesn't know a thing about business. They have hypotheses which are laughably wrong but they don't know it because they don't deal (and wine and dine etc.) with actual business leaders.
A good portion of the readership of this blog are mass-affluent techies who came of age, professionally, in the ZIRP era where everything worked. So they are under the delusion that they "made it" because their ideas were smart, when, in fact, even the dumbest idea would have made it too. These people don't know jack. They can invert a binary tree, or whatever the term is, but they don't know the first thing about building a business in earnest.
lol. This is obviously a troll post. Casual travelers don’t visit sites like this. I am a business owner and I imagine many other readers are, or they are high earners able to travel a lot- which is obviously this site’s target audience is. Nice try, though. Have a nice day. : )
Yes because high earners care so much about which card gives them more points when they go to whole foods....
Cool.
However frequent travellers know exactly what is needed to operate a good airline :
Reliability, timing, pricing, staff, lounges, seats, food, WiFi, IFE. Global Fiasco Airlines had absolutely none of this. There maybe teething problems as with any company however it was a s- show.
If flying an A380 across the pond was so profitable the US3 would be doing it. That's an A380 fully loaded with passengers and cargo. not an A380 with less than 100 passengers and likely no cargo. I don't need to have gone to medical school to look at someone overdosing to understand they're in a medical crisis.
If Boeing had launched a new double decker long-haul aircraft back in 2003, I bet the US3 would be flying it today.
If so they'd be in a hunk of hurt. Long thin routes are future for most routes. People want to fly to their destination without making any more connections than necessary (ideally zero). Even if that weren't the driving factor hubs are slot constrained. Not only that but aircraft like the A380 are less efficient per seat mile compared to newer smaller planes because the wings that would be required on these extremely large aircraft...
If so they'd be in a hunk of hurt. Long thin routes are future for most routes. People want to fly to their destination without making any more connections than necessary (ideally zero). Even if that weren't the driving factor hubs are slot constrained. Not only that but aircraft like the A380 are less efficient per seat mile compared to newer smaller planes because the wings that would be required on these extremely large aircraft would be extremely difficult to build.
I wonder ha Ben tolerates this comment, trying to insult the readers of Bens website.
My kingdom for a downvote button.
The reviews are unanomous... A $h!t show.
No second meal service. 4 hour first dinner service.
No inflight entertainment.
Worn out hard product.
Terrible soft product.
Sorry about the misspelling... unanimous.
It is likely the same group of people funding “HolidaySwap”, very rich naive bro investors.
For years James would post instagram stories flying “around the world”, but mostly to Dubai, “slamming” champagne in always first class, and arrive to “business meetings” thereafter. He would post pictures from the pool “grinding.” He must be so busy now I haven’t seen these stories recently. Do non-crypto (i.e legitimate) CEOs really post and “work” like this?
...It is likely the same group of people funding “HolidaySwap”, very rich naive bro investors.
For years James would post instagram stories flying “around the world”, but mostly to Dubai, “slamming” champagne in always first class, and arrive to “business meetings” thereafter. He would post pictures from the pool “grinding.” He must be so busy now I haven’t seen these stories recently. Do non-crypto (i.e legitimate) CEOs really post and “work” like this?
When bloggers would critique HolidaySwap, he would personally write cease and desist letters to reduce searchable criticism and control the public narrative.
It’s already known James purchased the Global instagram account with hundreds of thousands of followers. Do you think he didn’t buy followers for HolidaySwap and his personal account?
Also, can anyone confirm the legitimacy of “Guiness world record for visiting all 196 countries”?
I’m not surprised these flights took off - but I will be even more surprised if we don’t get a Netflix documentary on these scams that have funded his lifestyle.
@Brian - James Asquith did beat the record in 2013 for being the youngest person to visit every country at the age of 24. I believe it was published by The Guinness Book of World Records. His parents were both in the travel industry (one was a pilot and another a flight attendant, can't remember the order though). He also had generational wealth from what I have heard. I also heard from a YouTube video...
@Brian - James Asquith did beat the record in 2013 for being the youngest person to visit every country at the age of 24. I believe it was published by The Guinness Book of World Records. His parents were both in the travel industry (one was a pilot and another a flight attendant, can't remember the order though). He also had generational wealth from what I have heard. I also heard from a YouTube video that he grew his wealth by buying bank stocks during the great recession (I don't know the accuracy of this last point). Regardless, he is a spoiled rich kid type of guy.
And he doesn't currently hold that world record. Lexie Alford beat that record in 2019 at the age of 21, and as far as I know, she still holds that record.
yeah, there's a nonzero possibility that the question we should be asking is not "which rich morons/fund managers would be naive enough to fund this airline" but rather, "which rich morons/fund managers would be naive enough to lend against HolidaySwap at hilarious valuations?"
The Family Airlines folks must be really jealous
Barry Michaels is still posting 100x a day on Linkedin begging for investors and a CEO for Avatar Airlines
At this point it would not surprise me if Netflix bought the rights to make a “Fyre Fest”-like documentary about it and that’s what’s keeping the “airline” going. I used to follow James and he appeared to often take trips to the Middle East for “work” so maybe he has some backers there? But if so, wouldn’t they want to publicize how they are helping to keep the A380 flying? This has been a huge...
At this point it would not surprise me if Netflix bought the rights to make a “Fyre Fest”-like documentary about it and that’s what’s keeping the “airline” going. I used to follow James and he appeared to often take trips to the Middle East for “work” so maybe he has some backers there? But if so, wouldn’t they want to publicize how they are helping to keep the A380 flying? This has been a huge head scratcher from the start made even more bizarre (and impressive) by actually kind of sort of launching service.
Among the potential reasons/mysteries:
1. Really dumb people with lots of money living out a childish fantasy
2. A money laundering scheme
3. Someone also with money desperate for social media fame.
Beyond that this isn't even close to be a viable business model. In fact, it's a total joke.
Bingo! I’d go with #2. First thing I thought of was money laundering. Maybe they got tired of buying up New York real estate. Half of those new super talls in Manhattan are sitting vacant. Whenever there is war, there is a vast amount of money laundering. Most business owners with that kind of money don’t foolishly spend it on bad business.
Yeah, it is quite confusing to me. I don't see how any money is being made w/ Global Airlines, whether as a legit business or some kind of money-laundering scheme.
To me, it's giving spoiled rich kid wants to run an airline as a pet project vibes. It's not a serious business or airline.
I just want to know who’s going to prison first…
Who’s going to want to abscond from the UAE when it’s time to pay up? They do lock up people for not paying their debts there, and it sounds like the flights of this airline CEO/founder cosplay are burning money (and/or running up debts) anytime they make it into the air.