Global Airlines Narrative
As an enthusiast you’ll appreciate that Global Airlines, founded in 2021 by travel expert James Asquith. And from a glance at the Global Airlines web site it will be driven by his passion for travel and his dissatisfaction with the subpar experiences he’s had on countless flights. With his experience visiting 196 countries by age 24, James knows the airline industry well and aims to fix these issues by focusing on exceptional customer experience. Remember the magic of flying as a child? Global Airlines is committed to bringing that feeling back. Now, with a top-tier team of aviation experts, Global Airlines is ready to take off—while you simply sit back and relax.
The Vision – James Asquith
We are revolutionising commercial flying. We’ve all suffered for far too long with long security queues, late flights, lost luggage, inedible food and constant poor customer service. Global Airlines offers fast relief from the aches and pains associated with commercial air travel. We bring joy at every interaction and delight at every touch point. Take a deep breathe, welcome aboard.
Ready to take off?
Reading the blurb on the Global Airlines web site, they are going to be starting a scheduled trans Atlantic service in 2025. With that in mind, how are they doing up to now? Well they have acquired their first Airbus A-380 and have managed a trans Atlantic flight (positional). But the aircraft is sitting at Prestwick Airport, with no significant visible change. There has been some minimal activity around the aircraft, but nothing that would lead you to believe that it is anywhere near service ready.
Given Mr Asquith and his top-tier team’s vision, the remediation of all that is problematic for the regular flyer – the timescales may be somewhat optimistic. But we can all live in hope, it’s what dreams and nightmares are made of. Global Airlines has been silent on progress since early June, but they still have time to meet the tight timescales.
The Aircraft
Was stored in an arrid storage facility and is now parked in the damp, salty and corrosive Prestwick environs. The deterioration of the aircraft will only accelerate, it may well never leave Prestwick and end up being broken up in situ.
The Airline
Global Airlines went dark in June, nothing of any substance since. For a company that will need to establish and maintain a nearly 80% load factor to break even. They do not seem to be particularly bothered about generating interest in the business, they have spent even less time explaining how they will mitigate things outwith their control – like lost luggage and security delays.
The Future
I’d like to think that this would be a successful venture, but in truth I don’t see any progress – maybe I just don’t read the right stuff. The approach taken by Mr Asquith seems to me to be incredibly naive, this is someone who has no airline experience except as a passenger. And he is going to change the aviation industry, I don’t think so. Even if he surrounds himself with experienced airline people, most of them are going to be new to the world of startup airlines.
There seems to be issues with the airline name, although Mr Asquith decided on it years ago – running a search for “Global Airlines” doesn’t return the expected results.
I’d just love to see his business plan and given where all this seems to be headed, I’d really love to see his business continuity plan. Although before you get started on one of them, you should have customers that you care about.
The funding required for a project like this is immense, getting not one but four A-380’s getting them liveried fitted out as required. Along with the requirement for an AOC and all the hundreds of pre-requisites, will cost a lot. I’d go for a nine digit number and the first digit is not a one. I’ll carry on watching this with interest, but suspect that the A-380 will lie at Prestwick longer that the Norwegian 787’s.