4 minute read
The Launch Of Frinas Airways
The Launch Of Firnas Airways
Earlier we talked about ANA starting with two helicopters in the early 1950s and growing to the point where it became Boeing’s launch customer for the Dreamliner.
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In the UK, one entrepreneur wants to take an airline on a similar trajectory. Starting with one Jetstream 31, his vision is to turn his airline into Britain’s third long-haul full service airline alongside British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
The airline is Firnas Airways and the entrepreneur is Kazi Shafiqur Rahman, who previously launched a fragrance retail brand with only £600 ($850).
Not only is he only starting with one 19 seat aircraft, he is getting the airline off the ground by raising $500,000 on a crowdfunding platform. In a series of articles on LinkedIn, he’s explained his vision:
In one article, Rahman claims there is a lack of innovation in the aviation market and that there hasn’t been a new UK airline since easyJet launched in 1995. Rahman also explains that his background in retail as opposed to commercial aviation is an advantage: “The bottom line is, it’s about what customer wants or being able to identify for the customer what he/she needs or wants.”
When it comes to the $500k crowdfunding, Rahman explains that:
It is worth pointing out that Rahman has been talking about this idea since at least 2015, and so it has taken him a while to get it off the ground.
Also, when you read through his articles and posts, it’s clear that Rahman isn’t your run of the mill airline executive. His articles for example are littered with exclamation marks and enthusiastic statements:
E.g. - “You will have no choice but say we are being more than fair!” “We want you to also win with us!” “We will hire the right talent at the right time when the time is right. I am very good at spotting talent.” “I am fortunate to possess such skills!”
However, at the time of writing, he had indeed raised almost all ($444k) of the money he had been looking for from 161 individuals, so some appetite from small investors is there. He also does now have his one aircraft to get going.
And arguably the fact that Rahman isn’t your standard suit should work to his advantage.
After all the airline industry is full of larger than life and sometimes eccentric characters - Tony Fernandes, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Michael O’Leary and Sir Richard Branson are just a few examples. In part, their airlines have succeeded due to the force of their personalities, their ability to look beyond the obvious and - crucially - due to their ability to generate their own PR.
In addition, Rahman has an engaging back-story. He’s a local East London boy, where before he became he a self-made entrepreneur, he caught the aviation bug by doing jobs at London City Airport, including cleaning airplane toilets.
In fact, the first step in building ‘the boss as the brand’ will come in a Channel4 (UK) documentary being aired this year called “How to Start an Airline.”, where a crew spent several weeks following him around.
The chances of Rahman building an airline that will rival British Airways or Virgin Atlantic are of course slim. Indeed, the odds are against him that Firnas Airways will even survive the first year.
But then again, as Rahman writes in a social media post, “Never ever belittle someone’s idea! Because you do not know what they are capable of.”
He clearly has persistence and has assembled a team and a brand from nothing. And if whoever is doing his PR and marketing are playing their cards right, he should be getting acres of free coverage in media keen to write “local boy done good. From cleaning airplane toilets to owning his own airline” type features.
Key Take-Away
What do you have that will make people sit up and take notice of your brand, and hopefully spend money with you? In launching an airline, Kazi Shafiqur Rahman doesn’t have the money of his competitors and as it hasn’t yet launched, he doesn’t even have a product that consumers can see for themselves.
But what Firnas Airways has is him. He is a walking news story. As the saying goes “people buy people first, the product second.” And people make news. His marketing team should be maximising this and the different news opportunities as the airline gears up to launch.
