JetBird raises €5m for launch

With the September start date for air taxi operations in Germany rapidly disappearing, the Sunday Times reports that JetBird has recently raised €5m from investors to pave the way for the company's startup. It is not clear who the investors are but the transaction was completed through a Cypriot based company. JetBird was founded by Domhnall Slattery who's company Claret Capital has retrenched in recent months due to a number of unsuccessful investments. In an interview with the Irish Times several weeks ago, Slattery said that the start up of JetBird was absolutely critical for his own personal reputation. In July the company was forecasting four Embraer Phenom deliveries during September with a total of ten aircraft based in Germany by year end. These figures have been revised downward to four aircraft by year end. Although JetBird has had a booking 'simulator' running on it's website since earlier this summer the system is still not accepting 'real' bookings.