MICHAEL James, the disgraced former owner of Air Australia who presided over the carrier’s $97 million collapse in 2012, has been heavily implicated in the operations of the failed Bestjet Travel (TD 18 Dec), with a preliminary report to the administrators repeatedly citing his involvement with the OTA.
Yesterday the company’s administrators held a meeting of creditors, with about 30 people in attendance including furious consumers and representatives of consolidators, airlines and IATA.
Bestjet’s current owner, Robert McVicker, who placed the company into administration less than six weeks after acquiring the business in early Nov, provided a summary of the situation from his point of view, admitting that he had no access to Bestjet’s accounting package and suggesting the administrators “contact Michael James on 0409 355 133 for payroll information”.
A list of creditors also refers repeatedly to “M. James”, with the incomplete schedule detailing debts of more than $700,000 owed to Skyscanner, $420,000 to Kayak, $46,000 to QBE and a $65,000 claim by David Lanning, former director of Wynyard Travel.
Other major creditors cited include IATA, CVFR and credit card processor Integrapay, but the amounts owing are “still being calculated,” according to the list.
McVicker’s list of assets owned by the company include a $3.6m bank account, a credit card in the name of Michael James and software in the company’s Philippines office and the “cloud” valued at about $600,000.
Debtors listed, based on projected sales for 2018 which “may be disputed depending on contracts,” include $3.2 million claimed to be owed by Sabre for “sector rebates” as well as sales overrides from a range of carriers including Philippine Airlines, Air India, Finnair, Qatar Airways, China Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Royal Brunei, Vietnam Airlines, Oman Air and Air China.
An estimate of moneys owed by Sabre and CVFR is “based on information provided by Michael James,” the report states.
In 2016 Bestjet undertook a concerted legal campaign against AFTA in an attempt to overturn a decision not to renew the company’s ATAS accreditation based on the “Close Associate” provisions of the ATAS charter.
Bestjet has repeatedly denied Michael James (pictured) had any involvement in the firm set up by his wife Rachel James just weeks after the Air Australia collapse.
Source: traveldaily