Jetbird take-off looks uncertain

AS AN investor in Irish executive jet airline Jetbird, Barry O’Callaghan is well placed to offer a view on whether it can finally get airborne in 2010.

“No, I don’t [think it will],” was the straight-down-the-line response to me in a phone interview yesterday.

“Obviously I’m disappointed as a shareholder because, one, you like to get a financial return but, two, you always like to see businesses that are spawned by guys who want to make things work.”

Jetbird is the creation of financier Dómhnal Slattery, a friend of O’Callaghan. It was backed by investors in his Claret Capital private equity business, of which O’Callaghan was one.

The Dublin-based airline, which is being led by Dane Stefan Vilner, missed a few launch dates in 2009 and laid off staff before Christmas. It is currently scrambling to secure new funding for take-off.

It hopes to launch by the end of the first quarter of 2010, but the difficult credit environment and the problems in the global aviation sector mean there is a real possibility it will not get off the ground.

“It looked like a great idea a few years ago because private [executive] air travel was on a massive increase, and providing a Ryanair model within it, to be a cheap provider, looked smart,” O’Callaghan said.

“Such is life.”

Jetbird this week revealed that it is renegotiating its purchase agreement with Embraer, a Brazilian aircraft manufacturer. It has placed an order for 50 Phenom jets, with options on another 50.

“We are partners with Embraer in this project and, as Jetbird was not able to take delivery of the aircraft we had originally agreed to take during 2009, we are now working on a new purchase agreement with a new aircraft delivery schedule for the future,” the company said.

O’Callaghan said Jetbird had simply been blown off course by the credit crunch, like many other investments he made in recent years.

“It’s been extremely humbling for myself, and I know for Dómhnal and many others, but it’s a global economic downturn that has created unprecedented things. It is what it is.”