A new ski specialist airline has postponed its launch and cancelled all flights before any of its planes have so much as taken off - leaving 5,000 winter holidaymakers in the lurch.
The first
flights with Powdair from six UK airports to Sion airport in Switzerland were
due to start later this month. However, a statement released by the nascent
carrier last week said: “Our key financial backer [has] walked away from the
Powdair journey for personal reasons.”
A week after
its first statement Powdair has today announced it will be postponing all
flights for this winter following talks with potential new investors – all
customers are to receive a full refund.
Last week's
statement, which was sent to everyone who had booked flights with the company,
said that the airline was faced with a stark choice – either postpone the
service this season or raise significant additional funds from individual
investors by the end of the week. “At this late stage, community ownership is
realistically the only way we’ll be able to make Powdair operational this
winter,” read the statement.
Since then,
the company has been approached by several interested parties and discussions
are already underway to secure new funding, however the new business plan will
not be complete in time for the airline to launch this winter – a decision made
on December 1.
According to
Powdair’s head of commercial Zoe Ombler the company received more than 100
emails offering financial help. “We apologise sincerely for the disruption to
all of our customers who had travel plans with us this winter. Since [last]
Monday we’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of support from investors,
businesses and resorts in the UK, Belgium and the Valais," said Ombler.
"We’ve
had significant investment offers from more than one professional and
experienced aviation industry investment group. However, the due diligence
required to finalise this investment will take at least 30 days and we have
therefore made the difficult, but what we feel is correct decision, not to
launch powdair this winter," continued Ombler.
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The collapse
comes just months after Monarch Airlines ceased trading, reeling from difficult
market conditions. Air Berlin, too, in October went under, before being in part
purchased by Easyjet.
The company
was looking to secure at least £3 million this season and £1 million by the end
of the week “in order to operate a reduced but efficient flight schedule",
however this plan has proved unsuccessful and all customers have been informed
of the decision to cancel flights and will receive a full refund from Powdair.
The launch
of the winter airline had been heralded as a positive development by skiers and
snowboarders, because transfer times from Sion Airport to key Swiss resorts
such as Verbier, Nendaz and Crans Montana are much quicker than transfers from
Geneva.
According to
Powdair more than 5,000 people had booked flights with the airline, and it has
already partnered with 15 resorts offering exclusive discounts on accommodation
and lift passes.
“Just as the
Powdair operation begins to snowball, [this] setback is both unexpected and
potentially disastrous for our airline, booked passengers and resort partners,”
Powdair’s chief financial officer Sean Pettit said last week.
If current
talks prove successful Powdair hopes to relaunch during 2018 as an airline,
operating its own aircraft, with plans to launch routes and schedules that also
include Chambery and Innsbruck airport, as well as Sion.