Airlines are navigating the worst downturn in the sector’s history – a tailspin that has no clear end date. Latest figures show that carriers lost more than €300bn globally in 2020. It might, then, seem like the worst possible time to start an airline. But judging by the number of new carriers launching or about to launch, the opposite could be true. And those rethinking the notion of hubs and routes look set to benefit. We check in with three new companies that have caught our eye. 

Having applied to serve more than 100 routes out of Hong Kong, Greater Bay is looking to snatch up slots relinquished by Cathay Pacific’s recently defunct regional arm Cathay Dragon (having brought in its former ceo Algernon Yau Ying-wah in the top spot). Its route map, heavy on China and other spots in Asia, aims to take advantage of a return to boom times in Asia. Founded by Hong Kong property magnate Bill Wong, the firm will launch with three aircraft but plans to have a fleet of 30 by 2025.

Launching in the coming months, Flyr aims to capitalise on the hole left by drastic downsizing at Norwegian Air – from where much of Flyr’s senior leadership has arrived. Founder and chairman Erik Braathen and ceo Tonje Wikstrøm Frislid (pictured) are out to scoop up some of Norwegian’s market share but in a more measured and careful way – identifying markets in need of air services both domestically and around Europe but eschewing the kind of frantic expansion Norwegian favoured. The airline is also keen to emphasise that it is truly Norwegian – no Irish shell companies to skirt Norwegian labour laws here.
flyr.no

Serial airline founder David Neeleman plans to roll out his latest carrier, Breeze, at some point before the end of the year. Details are still closely guarded but secondary cities in the southeastern US look to be an initial focal point. The airline will reportedly feature a premium cabin on its a220s – smaller planes with long-range capabilities to allow the airline eventually to expand into unserved routes, which could include South America and elsewhere. Breeze is emblematic of most of these start-ups: they are targeting under-represented cities and focusing on improving domestic and regional connections for the most part. They are betting that hubs are out and previously ignored but emerging markets – served direct – are in.
flybreeze.com

How are the UK’s creative industries faring post-Brexit? It’s all degrees of annoyance and complexity. We canvassed some leading lights of architecture, publishing and adland to find out more.

If you think about the literal connotations of a “brain drain” for too long the mind conjures some chilling Stephen King-ish imagery: post-lobotomy grey matter being sluiced away by a firm rubber glove; the anxiety-dream shudder of house keys being swallowed by a storm-drain – only it’s your sentience and skills that are rushing to join “It” in the sewers. Wurgh, the horror!

According to one study, an estimated 1.3 million people born overseas left the UK between the third quarter of 2019 and the same period a year later. So what’s the reality of post-Brexit life in the creative world?

For Jay Osgerby, of industrial design studio Barber Osgerby, alarm bells sounded right after the Brexit vote, with some of his European staff looking to relocate. “People didn’t feel welcome,” he says. “That trend hasn’t continued but the barriers to recruitment are greater than we imagined.” A designer’s stock-in-trade, says Osgerby, is “being trained to be a problem solver”. Oh, well that’s lucky. “Exactly – we feel that because that’s one of our skills, the government’s just gone, ‘Here you go – catch this,’ and thrown us the ball without telling us the rules of the game.”

At a notionally adjacent drawing board sits David Kohn, whose eponymous architecture firm began winning larger European work three years ago, some of which is in the public sector. “British architects are lucky because Europe’s commissioning culture has been very generous,” he says. “But not necessarily vice-versa.” Kohn says that UK architects are admired in Europe for their pragmatism and strategic thinking but he adds: “I have heard from peers in the UK that big projects have been cancelled because of Brexit.” Kohn, a self-described “rabid Europhile” is sanguine, saying that, “culturally, our European clients see through Brexit – in the end, they’re still calling and we’re still going.”

The world of advertising has to be as nimble as the finger of fate is fickle, so how have two storied UK names fared on the stormy Channel crossing? Daniel Fisher, global executive creative director of Ogilvy, was also a creative adviser for the People’s Vote – the group formed to lobby for a second EU referendum – so surely he has an eagle eye on the situation? “I see a shift to a decentralised model if firms can get over the tax questions of staff working across borders,” he says. “The urge to work together is strong and creatively absolutely essential.” Has the Zoom-crazed, screen-dazed past year made more mischief than Brexit? “Everything is obscured by the pandemic,” he says. “But London will continue to be a city where creative people come and make their name – despite some people’s best efforts.”

Stephen Ledger-Lomas is a partner at another top ad firm, bbh, and echoes those thoughts. “People are sitting on their hands but we’ll soon see what Brexit’s really serving up,” he says. “We’re good at keeping talent but creative work thrives on human connection so anything that puts up a barrier is a problem.”

Sharmaine Lovegrove, a Brit in Berlin who runs Hachette imprint Dialogue Books, is refreshingly undiplomatic about Brexit. “The dream of being part of a great creative Europe no longer exists,” she says. “Across Hachette everything is more complicated. What does a 90-day stay mean for residencies and book tours? What do tariffs mean for English language bookshops in Europe?” More expensive books? “Sure – and English itself is diminished if it’s too costly to read; the pandemic has offered Brexit a smokescreen but when it clears we’ll see everything as smaller and meaner.”

We’ll finish with our wellies on, in the Black Mountains of Wales where Fiona Stewart founded and runs the Green Man music festival, dependent on supply chains of talent, tour buses and crew. “Staging is more expensive,” she says. “It was a rite of passage for eastern European crews to come here and rig; our circus tents are put up by families who tour Europe every year. That might not happen now. These skills just go.” And on stage? “Music is the great cultural bridge and the UK’s music scene won’t fall apart. But it feels like a couple squabbling over their record collection after a divorce.” Not quite the horror that sets Stephen King’s pen a-flourish, then, but not fun and games for an industry worth £100bn (€116bn) to the UK economy.

The government negotiated for its hardline back bench of jumped up used-car dealers, not for inspiring, cultural or creative reasons to live here or visit from abroad. It is, as Jay Osgerby says, up to the creative industries to do what they do best: find an elegant solution to an ugly problem. 

If you want to make it in the world of electric mobility these days you have to corner a segment of the market, from e-bikes to e-trucks. But the e-vehicle that is proving the hottest property right now is US brand Rivian. Founded by an mit graduate in 2009, it has started to specialise in off-roader 4x4s. The company – which has backing from Amazon and Ford among others and closed its latest round of funding last June with of $2.5bn (€2bn) – has recently been road testing its five-seater r1t Explore in Arizona. It will be launched in January next year alongside a seven-seater r1s. The brand is attracting plenty of investor excitement with plans to take the company public towards the end of this year and expansion in Europe earmarked. Rivian is currently scouting factory space in several European locations. 
rivian.com