Russi Batliwala, the main investor and the one who provides the two seaplanes with which it expects to operate between Ibiza and Mallorca in a first phase. Isla Air Express was responsible for the worldwide cargo service of Chapman Freeborn, the contractor that leased the Yakolev 42, the tartan aircraft in which 62 Spanish soldiers lost their lives on a mountain in Turkey in May 2003, the worst peacetime tragedy in the history of the Spanish Army.
In fact, Russi Batliwala has developed his career in the contractor company that rented the Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines (UMA) plane that suffered a tragic accident in Turkey in 2003 with 75 people on board, as La Voz de Ibiza has been able to corroborate. The Army ignored repeated complaints from Spanish military personnel who had flown on other planes provided by the contractor to or from Afghanistan because of their low cost. The tragedy also had a wide repercussion due to errors in the identification of the corpses.
RJB Aviation Consulting GMBH
As reported by the specialized magazine Avion Revue, the German company RJB Aviation Consulting GMBH has contributed almost 8 million euros for the development of the Isla Air Express project. It is a company founded by Russi Batliwala, who has more than 37 years of experience in Chapman Freeborn, a leading British charter company in his country and in Europe. In 1990, Batliwala became CEO of the company in Germany, in 2000 he took over as head of the company’s worldwide cargo service, and in 2009 he became group managing director. “Since then, Russi has been instrumental in developing the company’s global expansion strategy, establishing many key global charter operations and subsidiary businesses in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America,” notes the Chapman Freeborn website. “I have spent my life working with aircraft and am a big fan of seaplanes,” Batliwala has told La Voz de Ibiza via email. He also confirmed that RJB Aviation Consulting Gmbh is his company, and said that the link between this company and Isla Air Express is “only as an investor and owner of the aircraft”. This version agrees with what Antoni Jiménez, representative in the Balearic Islands of Isla Air Express, has explained to La Voz de Ibiza, although without naming names. “The company is made up of a company that has the planes, another one that has the authorizations and a third one that commercializes, which is Isla Air Express”. According to Jiménez, this is the model of 90% of the airlines.
The hitherto hidden story of the leading investor
Until the publication in the specialized press, the identity of the investor had been kept hidden by Isla Air Express. La Voz de Ibiza had requested on several occasions the identity of the investors without success. “The main partner does not want public promotion, not because he has something to hide, but because he does not want that projection. He has other businesses in the Balearic Islands and he thinks this investment is great. His link with the operation of the company is tangential,” said Jimenez, after repeated inquiries from La Voz de Ibiza to confirm the identity of the major capitalist of the company. In fact, Batliwala has a company in Mallorca, Pas D’en Quint Mallorca SL, whose corporate purpose is “the purchase and sale, promotion, exploitation, administration and leasing of all types of properties, rural and urban, tourist and commercial”.
The Yak 42 trial
Together with the Ukrainian company, Chapman Freeborn was denounced by relatives of the victims, after numerous warnings about the poor condition of the aircraft were ignored by the Ministry of Defense, unlike the Norwegian government, which after a first complaint cancelled the contracts with the company. During the second civil trial of the case, Batliwala was summoned to testify at the Zaragoza Court, but did not show up. In 2010, Chapman Freeborn was ordered by the Zaragoza Court of Appeals to compensate the 59 plaintiff family members with 6.2 million euros. The process escalated to the Supreme Court, which ratified the sentence, and continued in Germany, where the compensation was confirmed. Batilwala, who is now a member of Chapman Freeborn’s board of directors, became CEO and legal representative of the company as the lawsuits progressed.
Minority partner, also with a controversial background
Batliwala was not present at the Isla Air Express tests carried out in the Balearic Islands. The company’s CEO, Sergio Núñez-Cacho Solans, and Klaus Dieter Martin, minority partner, were present. Dieter Martin, a consultant to Isla Air Express, has worked as the CEO of European Coastal Airlines, the Croatian company that promised to link the Balkan coast with Italy but came to an abrupt end. The company operated between 2014 and 2016, connecting Croatian ports and also operating international routes, which departed from Split (its main hub in Croatia) and the Italian destinations of Ancona and Pescara. Despite the fact that the company had good projections, in August 2016, after several complaints from passengers, the Croatian portal Index published an investigation in which it spoke of “dangerous omissions” in the maintenance of seaplanes. Soon, the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency withdrew their permission to operate for safety reasons. This resulted in the suspension of operations and the loss of 130 jobs. Dieter Martin not only brings his know-how to Isla Air Express, but is also one of the owners of Mediterranean Coastal Airlines. This company has an Air Operator’s Certificate, something that the company that intends to link the Spanish islands does not have.
