IN MY OPINION..........
I am not in the airline industry, but I am in an industry that requires government licensing. Last week I personally put together an application. One week; 5 days; one person...I submitted it Monday. That license itself...with no revenues generated...is worth about $100,000 when approved (about 3 to 6 months...again....based on the government's review process and upon their availability of resources and upon their "efficiency").
I have eight of these licenses already....does anyone doubt my ability to obtain the ninth? Is there any logical reason why Baltia can't procure the license they seek? It is just a matter of time......
My point here...1 week for my license. Baltia has 25 people working 2 1/2 years on a Federal License (mine is a State License) for INTERCONTINENTAL travel.....how much do you think that one is worth? I am going to toss out my guess....$20 million. In other words, a start up airline wanting to get into the airline industry would pay $20 million for a 2 1/2 year jump on getting their 747-200s in the air. Just my guess...what do you think......
Second....thinking logically about that first plane. If the only thing that plane served to do is to get the ball rolling on the certification (YOU NEED A PLANE TO START THE PROCESS!)....and that plane got us through the first year and a half of a 2 and a half year submission....and it cost us 1.6 million....WASN'T IT WORTH IT!
N706BL wasn't available to us 2 1/2 years ago...but N705BL was. Baltia paid about $500,000 for it and it got the ball rolling. Baltia only invested into it what they had to....all the while getting their 10,000 pages of manuals into the FAA for the first round of refusal. During the process...N706BL surfaced...she is what we were hoping for....so N705BL was stripped and junked and used for a future tax write off...putting $144,000 back into Baltia's bank account. N705BL served her purpose well and was "martyred" for the good of the company.
Just looking at it as a businessman should. The whole thing was a stroke of good luck....or Igor and his staff deserve a lot more credit than you might be giving them. IN MY OPINION.....I am putting my money on their ingenuity over lady luck.....but again....THAT IS JUST MY OPINION...
You can't seriously believe that a COMPANY that is going to TRANSPORT PEOPLE HALF WAY AROUND THE WORLD isn't going to have to spend money to get into business?
