Baltia Air Lines (New York JFK) director Vick Bolanos has acquired an additional 30million shares in the start-up for USD0.3million. Bolanos' investment comes amid reports other investors have begun to consider filing a class-action lawsuit against the start-up on the grounds that not enough has been done to get the project in the air.
Despite promises that it would begin flights to St. Petersburg using its sole aircraft, a B747-200, in the second half of this year, industry publication, Loadstar, claims the start-up has yet to even secure its US Part 121 Air Carrier Certificate.
However, the start-up's last quarter report further compounded investors' fears when it was revealed that Baltia had incurred a deficit of some USD97.8million and consumed USD30million in cash.
"The Company has incurred a deficit during its development stage of approximately $97,829,713 million and consumed approximately $30,013,410 million of cash due to its operating activities. The Company may not have adequate readily available resources to fund operations through December 31, 2014. This raises substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern," its SEC filing read.
According to its business plan, once all certification has been completed, Baltia will focus on developing its route network to Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, and Belarus with its maiden route - New York JFK to St. Petersburg - to operate once weekly initially before increasing to 3x weekly and then 5x weekly eventually.
In addition to the passenger market, the carrier also intends to sell cargo space on-board its flights offering containers, pallets, and block space arrangements. Targeting express shippers, Baltia also plans to market its own "Baltia Courier", "Baltia Express", and "Baltia Priority" express service for letters and packages.
