Irish Airline Headquartering in Barbados?

 Mr. Leslie Buckley one of the main backers of the airline.

To follow on from our post Jamaica Drops The Ball – Irish Competition For LIAT – Coming Soon To Grantley Adams? We thought we’d provide some more background info that we were able to find online about the airline that might be headquartered in Barbados. The source of the story is an article in the Jamaica Gleaner. The excerpt below has been edited for conciseness.

Airone Ventures, has successfully raised US$30 million  so far from private investors to begin its operations.

It plans to operate a fleet of five new Boeing 737s in the first eight months, with the intention of expanding to eight aircraft in two years.

Airone has tapped Digicel for assistance, saying that it would be relying on the savvy mobile phone company for sales support.

The airline principals envisage Airone becoming the largest regional carrier under plans to to add routes to the wider Caribbean and Central American markets.

The company says it will be positioning itself as a low-cost carrier.

“We are here to establish a headquarters and a home from which we will grow to over 25 planes spread over 7 bases within the Caribbean and the Americas,” the company said in its business plan.

BJM Nominees and Buckley have been named as the main shareholders of the company, with the remaining 22 per cent being made up of promoters and cash investors.

This new entity, which is comprised of interests with expertise in finance, telecommunications and aviation, plans to break into the Jamaican market as a Low Cost Carrier (LCC) with the ethnic Diaspora and cost conscious tourists as its main target.

Airone is promising fares priced as low as 80 per cent below current fares offered by airlines flying to Jamaica and other Caribbean destinations.

The principals in their pitch for CAA approval, argued that the establishment of Airone in Jamaica would not only provide low cost travel to residents and foreigners alike, but it would also generate some 220 new skilled jobs in the first year of operation with 90 per cent of those positions to be filled locally.

It estimates that its operations would contribute 2.0 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, and contribute a minimum of US$65 million in taxes to the Government, excluding those to be had from new employment and third party service providers.

Airone Ventures has set May 2008 to commence flights.

Irish Private Equity firm Quantum Investment Capital has also been publicly identified as an investor in the airline.

AirOne Ventures application for a license was denied by the CAA of Jamaica, the company had indicated that it would try it’s luck in Barbados (since then the company has been recruiting staff for a Barbados base of operations).

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