There are a lot of questionable “airline startups,” but arguably none as unusual as Global Airlines, which wants to bring back the “golden age” of travel with Airbus A380s, or something.
In the spring of 2025, the airline actually operated two roundtrip flights to New York out of Europe, for reasons that most of us couldn’t really make sense of. For that matter, this was part of a wet lease agreement with Portuguese charter company Hi-Fly, given that Global Airlines lacks its own operating certificate.
Shortly after the plane operated those flights, it entered long term storage, as it needs to undergo heavy maintenance, which costs millions of dollars. The company’s founder, James Asquith, has suggested that this will happen, but blames delays on general industry constraints, which is a bit questionable…
Anyway, we haven’t heard a whole lot about the company since last July, so what has been going on over the past 10 months? Well, not a lot, though there are some interesting things I notice…
In this post:
Global Airlines investor changes, winding up petitions
There are a couple of interesting things worth noting. First of all, if you look at court cases in the UK, it looks like two winding up petitions have been filed since the Global Airlines A380 has been put into storage. Now, both were dismissed… either way, you don’t typically see these kind of winding up petitions for otherwise healthy companies.
Second of all, and equally interesting, Tom Stokely has left the board of Global Airlines. He’s also the co-founder of OnlyFans, and was basically the most legitimate person associated with this operation (it’s not like we can give that title to former Etihad CEO James Hogan, given his track record).
Make of this what you will, but I do find those two details combined to be quite interesting.
James Asquith’s net worth has reportedly plummeted
Global Airlines founder James Asquith is… well, quite the guy. And if we’re to believe these ridiculous lists, then his financial situation has gotten much worse in recent times. In 2025, Asquith appeared on The Times’ 40 richest people under 40 list, which claimed he has a net worth of £183 million, making him richer than Adele.
This was also based on the claim that Holiday Swap had a £300 million valuation in 2022. This is the whole reason that Asquith has some amount of credibility (among some), as this is a home rental platform that has been described as a competitor to Airbnb, and in 2023, claimed to have 10 million users (more on that in a bit).
Anyway, this year’s The Times’ 40 under 40 list was just released, and Asquith is nowhere to be found, with the “poorest” person on the list having a net worth of £100 million. So I guess that Asquith’s net worth decreased by a lot year over year. I’ll let everyone decide for themselves what to do with that information.
Holiday Swap website & app just taken offline
Let me emphasize once again that Holiday Swap was reportedly worth £300 million in 2022, and had well over 10 million users. So, how is that aspect of Asquith’s business going, since we’re to believe that this is a total goldmine?
Well, Holiday Swap has been fully taken offline. The website is gone. The app doesn’t work. I messaged Asquith about this to ask if he had a statement, and he said “redeveloping it yup.”
For a website so major, you’d think an announcement would be put up on the website, on social media, etc. You know what’s even more unusual? Holiday Swap has now been down for a substantial amount of time, and I can’t find a single comment online about this. Like, I can’t find a single person talking about it on Facebook, X, etc.
I mean, Holiday Swap has 1.7 million followers on Facebook, and not a single one of those people has a single comment about the service just disappearing? It’s almost as if… well, never mind.
Bottom line
While James Asquith is continuing to insist that everything is great at Global Airlines and big things are coming soon, I do think it’s worth talking about the latest at the airline, given that we’ve seen almost no additional updates since the A380 was parked last July.
However, it does seem that some stuff has been going on in the background, and it’s mostly not very positive. Since then, we’ve seen the OnlyFans co-founder leave the board, and we’ve seen two winding up petitions filed (though ultimately dismissed). We’ve also seen founder James Asquith’s net worth reportedly plummet, if you’re inclined to believe the numbers in The Times’ 40 under 40 list.
And perhaps most significant of all is that Holiday Swap, the “Airbnb competitor” that reportedly had 10 million users and was worth £300 million, has been taken offline, and seemingly no one cares. Like, not even one of the company’s 1.7 million Facebook followers, best I can tell.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — this will all make a very interesting Netflix series one day.
Interestingly, today in the Daily Mail (not the most reliable news source...) there is an article which claims Global Airlines is looking at starting routes to the Maldives from regional UK airports. An interesting business proposition in its own right (cheap flights to mega-expensive resorts).
https://www.dailymail.com/travel/article-15863847/Global-Airlines-finally-announces-new-routes-UK-year-two-flights-took-off.html
Has anyone seen James at all in recent months? Looks like he has gone into hiding. Who knows what the reason is and how much his "investors" have to do with it. Honestly, I never saw the upside of getting involved too deeply with this project and being burned by it, unless there is the option to make a substantial amount of money by the time Global shuts down.
Asquith is relatively young and...
Has anyone seen James at all in recent months? Looks like he has gone into hiding. Who knows what the reason is and how much his "investors" have to do with it. Honestly, I never saw the upside of getting involved too deeply with this project and being burned by it, unless there is the option to make a substantial amount of money by the time Global shuts down.
Asquith is relatively young and his professional reputation as a businessperson is basically destroyed after this. So I'm still struggling to see the positives in this case, especially as he involved his family in all these posts and stories.
As for Holiday Swap, I never once met someone who has used that website. Ever.
James simply was using investor money to live a jetset lifestyle, and now that investment money has dried up
He'll be back with a new grift soon
James simply was using investor money to live a jetset lifestyle, and now that investment money has dried up
He'll be back with a new grift soon
There is now a 3rd winding up petition showing as of today, 29th May!
Well, it's not subtle. Though he did try his best, I'm sure. 'Holiday Swap Limited' (UK company registration 11625841) was incorporated in 2018, then was classified as a 'Dormant Company' (i.e. it never traded) until it was dissolved via compulsory strike-off in 2026. So it was (officially) worthless from its incorporation until its closure. He's made that a little less obvious by being 'James Edward Asquith' on Global Airlines Ltd and 'James Asquith' on Holiday...
Well, it's not subtle. Though he did try his best, I'm sure. 'Holiday Swap Limited' (UK company registration 11625841) was incorporated in 2018, then was classified as a 'Dormant Company' (i.e. it never traded) until it was dissolved via compulsory strike-off in 2026. So it was (officially) worthless from its incorporation until its closure. He's made that a little less obvious by being 'James Edward Asquith' on Global Airlines Ltd and 'James Asquith' on Holiday Swap Ltd, so there's no electronic link between the business. If I was following the rabbit-hole, though, I'd start with IHTG Limited, which he seems to be using as a holding company...
"It’s almost as if… well, never mind."
lol!
Wifey is hot NGL, at least he scored something real
When his net worth is £0.00 we'll see how "real" it is.
this girl is deranged. I love how we all pretended enough for him to actually do the launch.
I'll never not miss it. It was as deranged as CHAZ/CHOP lol
Looked on company house and it appears that Holiday Swap LTD (of which James Asquith was/is a director) was dissolved 24th March 2026….
Had a look at Holiday Swap a while ago. His 300 rooms in Manhattan were all in the same apartment block using the same room pictures all over and over again. Was exactly the same in London, this time he had 200 rooms in a Renaissance. Good luck to everyone who bought a token from them.
very funny stuff happening to the guy (james) who once used to call "points people" poor on instagram
seems like he might need some points in the future to afford luxury travel :)
When he's released from prison, maybe instead of getting £82.39, he can request it in airline points?
He'd only take skymiles though, because of 'premium'
Plus the Global Instagram account has been deleted (for a while now). Basically everything surrounding this guy’s businesses have been scrubbed. Fishy.
"redeveloping, yup" (LOL)
Global’s IG is still there but not posting much. Even the usual claims about “exciting news on the way!” aren’t that frequent now. You and everyone else who didn’t play along with the narrative were more likely blocked - like I was. There’s probably only bots and fake profiles engaging with it now.
Ooh, good point. I didn’t consider being blocked. I did make a few snarky (but true!) comments on their page. Guess that did it.
My money is on Asquith being the first to go to prison.
Best thing for him would be what happened to "Holiday Website" or whatever it's called: vanish and nobody notices. Sadly for him, I doubt that's his trajectory.
100% agree. But don't you think he kind of had to see this coming when he creates an airline with no supported business case for even existing? While I always found the guy super-annoying, it was easy to ignore him, but with this airline he created, he seems to have made his bed.
Maybe Johnny O'Toole from Global Ghana can join the board and help out! Scamming in the aviation industry is always so entertaining to read about - very curious to see what comes of all of this.
RIP Global.
You really dont like him do you Ben lol
James Asquith is a narcissistic twat. He thought he was starting a new airline to compete, when the two flights offered showed what a third rate product it was. It’s likely bankrupted him.
Some of his biggest supporters were ones who invested in the project e.g. Captain Chris on Instagram. They’d get all defensive and cranky at anyone who was too critical. Wonder how long before they start worrying about getting a return for their money.
captain Chris ? Does he not work for Virgin? And he invested ?? lol
If it’s the same “C Pohl” appearing on shareholders list, then yes. He’s something of an IG celebrity too. Global is all about optics (often misleading) so it’s no surprise that one influencer cheerleads another.