Start-up London City airline widens search for funding
UK start-up Odyssey Airlines has widened its efforts to secure funding for an all-business class service from London City Airport to New York.
The carrier, which hopes to launch flights in mid-2016, is expanding its search to the US market via UK crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.
It hopes to raise £5 million to support the next phase of development and then hopes to raise £60 million via a more conventional approach using financial institutions.
Using Bombardier CSeries CS100s, Odyssey plans to fly nonstop to New York but has not confirmed which airport. Longer term, it plans to add more services to Europe and the Middle East.
Odyssey CEO Adam Scott said: "The US crowdfunding market is the most mature for this type of financing, and is complemented by a massive appetite for innovative start-up investment.
"We are making good progress with our Crowdcube raise in the UK, but have received significant interest in our business from the United States and have launched this platform to give US investors an accessible means to invest."
The airline has also appointed two industry veterans to its executive team.
Dragonair founder Stephen Miller has become executive director. Miller also ran Hong Kong’s Oasis Airlines and is currently developing Sunrise Airlines in Sarasota, Florida.
David Tait, who was one of the founders of Virgin Atlantic and is now specialist in airline development and brand building, will also join the team.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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