Global Airlines wanted to bring back flying's ‘golden age'. It has a long way to go

Telegraph

3 days ago

'GROUNDED after just two flights,' the headlines shrieked. Photographs of Global Airlines' first and only Airbus A380 superjumbo parked at an airfield at Tarbes in France prompted reports that the UK start-up, which promised to transport passengers 'back to the golden 'jet-set' age' of travel, had nosedived after just two return flights.
Global made its inaugural flight on May 19 from Glasgow to New York's JFK, returning after four days. A few days later the carrier flew from Manchester to New York and back. Now its single jet stands idle at the largest aircraft storage facility in Europe. Critics point out that Global's website does not list any future flights. A holding page simply reads: 'Our new site is landing soon.'
The airline has rejected claims that it is in trouble in a series of social media posts. 'It's always great to see the Global A380 in the sky and it won't be long before she is up in the clouds once again on the way to the next adventure,' one read. 'We're proud to have successfully completed our first flights, a major achievement for any team seeking to break into aviation. The flying experience has been invaluable, offering us insight and momentum as we plan for the future. For now, we're taking the time to review all the feedback and lessons learned, after which we'll be ready to share what comes next.'
But what will come next? Will Global be back? And, if so, when?
'We're being compared to British Airways and Emirates overnight'
Global's founder, James Asquith, a 36-year-old former investment banker, has not given an on-the-record interview since the Tarbes pictures appeared, but company insiders say the first transatlantic flights were designed to demonstrate that Global could fly and answer questions about its viability. 'We've flown and we've been reliable on every flight. It removes the question marks in terms of: is Global real?,' one executive told Telegraph Travel.
He added: 'We were being called crazy for buying these planes. Critics said we'd never own them and would never fly them. Imagine if we'd waited longer. All we'd have had is voices saying: 'Is it ever going to happen?' We've proven we can do it. We've flown and now we're being compared to British Airways and Emirates overnight.'
Another Global insider, speaking privately, said: 'We always knew we would have a pause after those flights to get the certification and other things we need to start daily flights. We never said we would be flying ops after the JFK flights. What has happened was always the plan and it's hugely frustrating that lots of speculation out there saying something is wrong when this was always the plan.'
They have a point. When Asquith launched the Glasgow and Manchester flights he was keen to point out that they were special charter flights, operated by Hi Fly Malta, a subsidiary of the Portuguese aviation firm Hi Fly, and were billed as 'an A380 experience.' The first flights were 'proof of concept'. Global could not start regular passenger flights until it had obtained a UK Air Operator Certificate (AOC), he made clear.
It is also true that the A380 needs maintenance, which was scheduled after the first passenger flights. This should take 'a matter of months,' Global says. 'The A380 is parked, not stored – parked for maintenance that we always knew would be needed,' is how one executive puts it.
But behind the scenes it does appear that Global is facing challenges.
By now it had hoped to own at least two A380s, one the 12-year-old jet formerly operated by China Southern Airlines which it used on its inaugural flights and the other a 16-year-old superjumbo formerly flown by Singapore Airlines. It is not clear whether Global owns the Singapore Airlines' jet, is about to own it, or buy 'a different second jet', as one executive speculates, and, perhaps, even a third jet.
All Global will say on the record in a statement is: 'Various matters are progressing behind the scenes and we continue to move ahead with the Global journey. All options are open.' Privately, however, insiders say the firm is 'at the final hurdle' of the process of buying another A380 from a different carrier, as one puts it.
Having two, ideally three, jets is crucial to Global's future. 'We need more aircraft because the reality is, we can't operate daily flights with what we have. What happens if an aircraft goes tech?' a Global executive told The Telegraph. 'We'd rather sit and wait for more aircraft and scheduled daily flights than fly for the sake of it.'
Aviation analysts speculate that Global might have encountered problems with one of the leasing companies that own, operate and sell aircraft. 'These companies are not always the easiest to deal with,' says one. 'Buying a jet can be a fraught process involving deposits and strict payment schedules that can go awry.'
Global's supersized problem
Another issue appears to be the A380 itself. Choosing to start an airline with the four-engine behemoth was always going to be a challenge since, while it is a passenger favourite, it is thirstier than smaller twin engine jets. Fuel is airlines' biggest operating cost.
Recently things have become much worse. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has listed 95 airworthiness directives for the A380 since January 2020, including issues such as broken fuel pumps, defective escape slides, ruptured landing-gear axles and broken landing-gear axle. That's about double the number of directives for large Boeing aircraft in the same period, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.
A British Airways A380, which underwent 100 days of maintenance in Manila recently, flew just seven days of the first 30 after re-entering service in mid-June, according to Flightradar24. These issues might explain why some Global executives say the firm might purchase a different third jet. This is likely to be another Airbus, likely a twin-engine, single-decker A330 or an A350. Small carriers like to buy jets from a single manufacturer to keep costs down and streamline maintenance and pilot and crew training.
Global has also faced delays getting its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Authority. It had hoped to obtain it this year, but now executives concede that it is unlikely to be granted until next year because it will have to obtain new aircraft first. As one puts it: 'The CAA is not going to approve scheduled flights until they know we have enough jets to deliver scheduled flights. They know – and we know and agree – that we can't run the risk that 500 passengers will be stranded abroad.'
Although that means regular Global flights to and from the US will not begin until 2026 at the earliest, executives are planning more A380 experience flights or charter flights to keep its A380 flying and fine tune its service. 'The important thing for us is putting the Global tail in the sky and being able to demonstrate that we have a great, reliable product.'
Buckle up, the next chapter in Global's history looks like it will be a bumpy ride.