The chairman of AirX Charter (AX, Malta International) has hit back at allegations he spread false information about rival VistaJet (Malta) (VJT, Malta International), resulting in a lawsuit asking for damages of more than EUR386 million euros (USD413 million).
VistaJet, headed by Swiss entrepreneur Thomas Flohr, has sued AirX, its chairman John Matthews, and five other individuals over what it says was a concerted campaign to damage VistaJet's business and, ultimately, send it out of business. Among other things, the claim alleges the respondents briefed journalists attempting to generate negative stories about VistaJet. In addition, there are claims of the respondents using fake identities, burner email accounts, and a WhatsApp group called Vista Comms. ch-aviation does not say that any of the claims made by any parties are true, only that the claims are made.
AirX operates 16 business jets, including one A340-300, one B737-700(BBJ), seven Challenger 850s, three Legacy 600s, and five Lineage 1000s, in contrast to the far larger VistaJet, which has operations and AOCs in several nations and has around 90 business jets on the Maltese register. Responding to news of further VistaJet claims, Matthews called the lawsuit "a hoot" on LinkedIn over the weekend.
He says VistaJet is attempting to make him responsible for several of their own alleged problems, including increasing costs, owners pulling aircraft, clients ending contracts, stock market movements, and banks withdrawing finance.
"I've got a jam-packed schedule ahead over the weekend [on] WhatsApp, where, unbeknownst to me, I control the fates of financial stock markets and dictate other operators' losses and banking decisions." he posted. "Tomorrow, I'm off to orchestrate lender decisions and cause a big market crash. After that, I'll need to set the global commodity prices for the week. Lastly, let's not forget the crucial task of briefing international journalists on what they should write next week."
In a statement provided to Bloomberg last month, AirX and Matthews denied any allegations of improper conduct. "We have legitimate fears about the financial position of VistaJet, about which VistaJet’s own auditor has also voiced concern," the statement read. "A collapse of VistaJet would leave customers out of pocket and damage the industry as a whole."
