City law firm, McCarthy Denning, has successfully advised flypop, a UK-based start-up and low-cost long-distance airline, on attracting significant investment from the UK Government’s Future Fund (opened in May this year) and other private investors. With the effects of Covid-19 resonating around the globe, the UK economy and aviation industry will benefit greatly from closer travel links with India, the world’s sixth largest economy. This crucial funding takes flypop closer to applying to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for its Air Operator Certificate. flypop plans to launch its first scheduled flights in the second half of 2021. Passengers will travel on flypop’s widebody fleet and initial flights will take off from the UK to Tier 2 cities in India.
Founded in 2014, flypop is the UK’s only international, long-haul, low-cost airline which places environmental and social concerns at its heart. flypop has pledged that for every 400 meals it sells on its flights, it will feed 200 poverty-stricken individuals in the UK and 1,000 in India. Moreover, flypop intends to purchase carbon credits without passing the cost on to its passengers, in a quest to offset emissions generated by its flights, as a truly carbon-neutral airline.
The McCarthy Denning team consisted of Chairman and Head of Corporate, Richard Beresford, and banking expert and Partner Nigel White, who worked tirelessly over a period of several months to bring the deal to fruition. The team are currently assisting a number of other applicants for the Future Fund scheme which is attracting a lot of interest.
flypop’s Founder and CEO, Nino Singh Judge, says: “When combined with additional funding raised from private investors, the funding from the UK Government’s Future Fund has played a key role in putting flypop in a position to start flights, initially between the UK and India, something which will contribute significantly to the economic growth and closer cultural links between these two Commonwealth partners and eventually with all of South Asia.
“I would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance flypop received from its legal advisers, McCarthy Denning, who have been instrumental in making flypop’s UK Government Future Fund application a success. They went above and beyond what was asked of them, and we are really looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with the firm. They are a truly excellent bunch of people with a great, commercially focused attitude combined with brilliant technical know-how. I really like their model of providing senior lawyer advice in a low-overhead environment.”
Richard Beresford, Chairman and Head of Corporate at McCarthy Denning, says: “This was a very fulfilling deal to work on – it’s great to be able to help bring an early stage business like flypop to the next level of development. It is always exciting to assist young businesses in progressing, but, in the current economic situation, and with Brexit looming, it was especially rewarding to be able to work on a project that offers a ray of light to the beleaguered UK aviation sector.
The Future Fund is a great initiative and is providing a much needed shot in the arm for innovative UK businesses. We are currently assisting a number of other applicants for the scheme, which is proving extremely popular, and hope that we can assist still more businesses apply to avail themselves of the available funding before the end of November deadline.”
