p4 oct24 22/10/08 22:24 Page 4
news
24.10.2008
Meridian chiefs’
SALVAGED: The
Barbados Tourist
£2.8m pay day
Board gave a ray of
sunshine to ex-XL
Caribbean product
Chris Gray.
manager Shareen
TWO bosses of Meridian Aviation, a flight broker Geers, who lost her
that was used by XL Leisure Group and which job and holiday,
now also trades as Kiss Flights, were paid a total finding Shareen and
of £2.8 million last year. her family seats
Graham Rolph and Andre Cachia received with BMI, while
£2,850,907 in “directors’ emoluments” in the year Crystal Cove and
to the end of March 2008, according to accounts Elegant Hotels
filed earlier this month at Companies House. The honoured Shareen’s
highest-paid director received £2,019,152. “points” earned for
The previous year, the two men were paid complimentary
a total of £2,555,255, with the highest paid accommodation
receiving £1,680,170. Rolph stopped being
company secretary on August 13 this year.
According to the accounts, during the two
financial years to March 31 this year, the
company had two directors and one employee.
Zoom boss plans
The payments to the highest-paid director made
him among the biggest earners in the industry.
It would put him ahead of what Thomas Cook
chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa stands to
start-up airline
earn this year, whose £630,000 basic salary and
potential 100% bonus could bring his package up
Chris Gray and Lucy Huxley.
with established airlines because start-
to £1,260,000. THE FORMER UK boss of Zoom Airlines is in the ups were inherently risky in the pres-
According to Meridian’s accounts, it made a advanced stages of setting up an airline aimed at ent climate, saying his passengers C
O
pre-tax profit of £635,000 in the year to March meeting demand for seats from small operators would book through Atol-bonded
STO
VER
2008. hit by the collapse of XL Airways. operators on routes for which there R
Y
Jonathan Hinkles is talking to investors about was clear demand.
getting start-up funding of up to £11 million and “The routes to market for the sectors
BA: new service to
has pledges of support from several independent we are selling would be through Atol-bonded
operators that are also prepared to invest. tour operators and the flying would be on routes
Dubai could work
The airline, codenamed “Project James”, that have been flown for many years,” he said.
would fly from Gatwick using four leased aircraft, Hinkles said capacity out of Gatwick was 25%
a mix of Boeing 737-700s and 737-800s, to sum- down next summer and his venture would replace
BRITISH Airways could successfully operate an mer destinations including Greece, Turkey, Spain, seats that had been taken out of the market.
all-business-class service to Dubai, its Middle Egypt and winter ski resorts including Chambery. Noel Josephides, Sunvil managing director,
East commercial manager has claimed. Hinkles, who was UK managing director of said he supported the idea of Project James
The airline is carrying full loads in its premium transatlantic no-frills airline Zoom, which as small operators were struggling to find capacity
cabins on its thrice-daily Dubai service and is set collapsed in August, is targeting a formal launch for next summer as the big two refused to give
to up frequency to four times daily in the winter. within weeks and plans to start flying in April 2009. allocations they had used for several years.
Paul Starrs said he had been lobbying for an Hinkles said the idea was to meet demand “It [Project James] would solve a lot of
all-business-service to the Gulf state for some time. from small operators who wanted to take small problems for us,” he said. “We need the right size
BA would not be the first airline to operate an allocations on aircraft flying to routes previously of aircraft and choice in the market so we don’t
all-business route to the Gulf state: Lufthansa serviced by XL Airways. have to put all our capacity into one airline.”
currently operates a daily all-business service He refuted claims by The Co-operative Travel
from Frankfurt to Dubai. boss Mike Greenacre, that the trade should stick ■ More aviation news, p36
04 24.10.2008
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