JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON
Accountants take control of the company after a refinancing bid by management fails
Chauffair, the UK's largest air taxi operator, has gone into receivership. Accountants Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) took control of the Farnborough-based company last week at the request of its bankers after a refinancing bid by the management failed.
The board of Chauffair, which has debts estimated at £19 million ($27 million), has been dismissed and all pilots have been made redundant. Some finance staff and maintenance staff remain.
Nick Probett, former owner and managing director, says that the decision by the Bank of Scotland not to pursue administration (bankruptcy protection) came "out of the blue", adding that talks were advanced on a refinancing plan.
Chauffair had ambitions to become one of the largest business jet providers in Europe operating up to 15 aircraft, based on an order for nine Cessna Citation Excels to replace older Citation II/Vs. Probett blames the 21-year-old company's demise on its inability to sell any of its older aircraft. Chauffair had based its business plan on replacing six older aircraft with Excels, but failed to find buyers.
Probett says that the private jet market started to collapse 15 months ago, which coincided with the launch of its business plan. Probett insists that the strategy was not flawed, pointing to the high usage of Chauffair's first Excel since its delivery last July. Operating costs were greatly increased, says Probett, by extensive modifications to the older aircraft, including compliance with new European reduced vertical separation minima requirements, which come into effect this week.
PWC says that it has been instructed to sell the business as quickly as possible, "either as a going concern or on an asset basis". Farnborough rival operator Avaco says that it has been approached to buy Chauffair's three Raytheon Hawker 700/800s, which it would operate on charters.
Chauffair had a joint venture with US fractional scheme Flight Options, providing European onward service for North American customers of the programme.
Flight Options is minority-owned by Raytheon, following a merger earlier this month with Travel Air. Flight Options is now reviewing future operations in Europe and is also talking to PWC.
Source: Flight International
