It is my opinion that Flight Options is having some major growing pains right now. A few things stand out...
One, Flight Options has been unsuccessful in trying to secure additional financing. Wasn't the merger of Travel Air and FO supposed to provide the critical mass and economies of scale needed for the operation to cash flow? If they have not reached that point by now will they ever?? Is the Fractional business a money maker?? If they can prove to the banks that they can make money the banks would have loaned them money by now. Obviously they haven't been able to prove this yet. FO has been out of cash before...they almost ran out of money 2 yrs ago and Kenn had to sell off Inertial Airlines in order to keep FO going. Then last year the merger with Travel Air...another 20 million put into the company from the loan from Raytheon. Now they are outta cash again and running out of options. Kind of ironic lots of Flight Options but no Money Options.
Two, I caught wind through the grapevine that a bank was repossessing a Hawker 700A that is owned by FO and used as part of their core fleet. FO has been trying to sell this A/C for some time now. Unfortunately they owe a lot more than what the a/c is actually is worth. Instead of just continuing to market the a/c for sale they have decided to stop making the payments and let the bank repo it. This of course will have a major effect on their ability to borrow money. Who is going to extend credit to someone who is defaulting on their obligations???
Overall FO is a good company with a great product, great employees but below average managment. They are just another company really hurting right now due to really bad economic conditions. My thoughts are that if the current slow down in the economy persists for an extended period of time, there will be some major changes coming for FO as we know it. Probably a buy back by Raytheon and a major managment shake up. Ricci will probably be out but he's already made his money. He's already rebuilding Corporate Wings...buying FBO's and starting aircraft managment again.
It will be interested to see how things evolve....Good luck to all and fly safe!!!
One, Flight Options has been unsuccessful in trying to secure additional financing. Wasn't the merger of Travel Air and FO supposed to provide the critical mass and economies of scale needed for the operation to cash flow? If they have not reached that point by now will they ever?? Is the Fractional business a money maker?? If they can prove to the banks that they can make money the banks would have loaned them money by now. Obviously they haven't been able to prove this yet. FO has been out of cash before...they almost ran out of money 2 yrs ago and Kenn had to sell off Inertial Airlines in order to keep FO going. Then last year the merger with Travel Air...another 20 million put into the company from the loan from Raytheon. Now they are outta cash again and running out of options. Kind of ironic lots of Flight Options but no Money Options.
Two, I caught wind through the grapevine that a bank was repossessing a Hawker 700A that is owned by FO and used as part of their core fleet. FO has been trying to sell this A/C for some time now. Unfortunately they owe a lot more than what the a/c is actually is worth. Instead of just continuing to market the a/c for sale they have decided to stop making the payments and let the bank repo it. This of course will have a major effect on their ability to borrow money. Who is going to extend credit to someone who is defaulting on their obligations???
Overall FO is a good company with a great product, great employees but below average managment. They are just another company really hurting right now due to really bad economic conditions. My thoughts are that if the current slow down in the economy persists for an extended period of time, there will be some major changes coming for FO as we know it. Probably a buy back by Raytheon and a major managment shake up. Ricci will probably be out but he's already made his money. He's already rebuilding Corporate Wings...buying FBO's and starting aircraft managment again.
It will be interested to see how things evolve....Good luck to all and fly safe!!!
