Global Airlines Faces Another Winding Up Petition: Is Liquidation Next?

I’ve written extensively about Global Airlines, the (highly questionable) “airline startup” that has a single Airbus A380, and wants to bring back the “golden age” of travel. In the spring of 2025, the airline actually operated two roundtrip flights to New York out of Europe, for reasons that most of us couldn’t really make sense of. For that matter, this was part of a wet lease agreement with Portuguese charter company Hi-Fly, given that Global Airlines lacks its own operating certificate. Shortly after the A380 operated those flights, it entered long term storage, as it needs to undergo heavy maintenance, which costs millions of dollars. The company’s founder, James Asquith, has suggested that this will happen, but blames delays on general industry constraints, which is a bit questionable. To my knowledge, no progress has been made with heavy maintenance actually starting, but that hasn’t stopped Asquith from suggesting that the airline will launch flights to the Maldives before the end of 2026. Lol, okay. Have I mentioned that OMAAT Airlines may start flights to the moon before the end of 2026 as well? Anyway, I provided an update on the current state of Global Airlines several months ago, but there are now some additional details… Global Airlines dealing with yet another winding up petitionThere’s so much more to this story that will come out eventuallyBottom line Global Airlines dealing with yet another winding up petition Earlier this year, I wrote about how Global Airlines had two winding up petitions filed against it, both since the A380 was put into storage. For those not familiar, a winding up petition is a legal proceeding filed by a creditor, typically seeking to force a company into compulsory liquidation. As you’d expect, this can be a bit of a process, companies are often give more time to fix things, etc. However, the pressure is mounting. Regarding the most recent winding up petition that was filed on May 29, 2026, we’ve now seen two hearings within the UK’s insolvencies and companies court regarding this case, with the first hearing being on July 15, and the second hearing being this week, on September 2. While the results of these meetings aren’t made public, I have reason to believe that this could get very interesting in the next few weeks, before the end of September. Keep in mind that earlier this year, OnlyFans co-founder Tom Stokely reportedly left the board of Global Airlines, and he was basically the most legitimate person associated with the company. Meanwhile former Global Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Richard Stephenson took to LinkedIn this week (literally exactly coinciding with the latest Global Airlines court battle) to share that he has “a new runway ahead.” No shade, but it’s kind of hilarious that he’s trying to get a gig (“if you’re a CEO, Chair, investor or senior leader with an opportunity to grasp, a change to navigate or a particularly knotty problem that could benefit from an experienced and independent pair of eyes, I’d be very happy to talk”) while somehow trying to make his past few years of work sound successful. That requires an incredible lack of self-awareness… but I think that’s also a requirement to be involved in Global Airlines in any capacity? There’s so much more to this story that will come out eventually Let me just acknowledge that if you’re reading this casually and don’t understand the background, you might think “wow, you’re being really catty toward an entrepreneur just trying to launch a business.” I can’t tell you how many dozens of hours I’ve spent researching every aspect of this operation, and talking to people involved. I’ll simply say that there’s so much beneath the surface here, and so many people who have invested millions in this operation with endless promises, and little to show for it. Without skepticism, people would’ve just kept pouring money into this operation. There are all kinds of entrepreneurs trying to make an honest living, who deserve to be supported. This operation is… well… you can decide for yourself. To Asquith’s credit, as I said all along, I never thought that A380 would ever fly with passengers. So the fact that they operated two trips before the plane had to go into heavy maintenance (even if the trip wasn’t on Global Airlines’ own air operator certificate) is more than I ever expected for the airline… congrats! For what it’s worth, I had invited Asquith to have a conversation with me, and set the record straight on some points, but he’s not up for it. Bottom line Global Airlines is continuing to face court battles related to its winding up petition. We saw the latest petition filed in late May 2026, and we’ve now seen two additional hearings on this case since then, with the most recent being this week. A winding up petition is intended to allow creditors to force a company into liquidation, and we’ll see if it proves successful this time around. The next few weeks could get very interesting. What do you make of this Global Airlines situation?