Private jet giant takes on rival in Maltese court for €386 million

The Maltese courts are the site of a global battle between two of the most prolific private jet operators, after the company VistaJet alleged it had suffered €386 million in damages in a misinformation campaign by its rival AirX.

The VistaJet lawsuit alleges a relentless campaign carried out by AirX to undermine Vista Global’s reputation and investor confidence, by briefing journalists with financial information that mispresented Vista’s financial health.

At the heart of the claims are a series of WhatsApp messages in a group run by AirX founder John Matthews, seeking to build momentum against rival VistaJet and its owner Thomas Flohr.

Last week, Mr Justice Toni Abela reduced cautions requested on individual AirX employees in the lawsuits filed by VistaJet against Air X CEO Friederich Baldinger, group chief officer Hassam Hazzouri, CFO Abigail Bartolo and other Maltese employees. Both AirX and VistaJet are based in Malta.

Mr Justice Toni Abela described the allegations hurled by both parties at each other as a “commercial war” in which AirX officers are accused of having mounted a mediatic campaign against VistaJet.

The judge revised the guarantees being claimed on the individual defendants, such as in the case of Baldinger, down to €200,000, and €5.1 million on the prospective court proceedings.

AirX said in its reply to the court that VistaJet was requesting a fantastical figure for what it said was an abusive lawsuit.

VistaJet accused the founder of AirX, British national John Matthews, of having mounted a campaign of misinformation against VistaJet founder Thomas Flohr, to damage the company.

The case is based on messages that were exchanged in a WhatsApp group between AirX employees called ‘Vista Comms’, in which the defendants are accused of having distributed false and damaging information to journalists about VistaJet as well as its clients, and supplier Bombardier.

The Malta claim is aimed at implementing a garnishee on AirX employees to safeguard the companies’ pretensions for damages on loss of business, should its case be upheld in a court of law.

AirX has replied that VistaJet is attempting to massage what should have been allegations of defamatory libel in news reports appearing in The Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal, into a vexatious request for commercial damages.

AirX told the Maltese courts that the WhatsApp group in question was set up by its founder John Matthews, who has not been sued by VistaJet, and said that the people added to the group had little to no involvement in the chats.

“The veracity of the various news reports published by reputable, third-party media houses, allegedly caused through the defendants’ ‘manipulation’, which have allegedly caused damages of €386 million… has not been challenged through the exercise of VistaJet’s ‘right of reply’,” AirX’s lawyers told the Maltese courts.

“Even if damages were indeed suffered by VistaJet entities, the causal link between the defendants’ alleged acts or omissions, and the damage suffered, is non-existent.”

VistaJet, founded in 2004, relocated to Malta in 2012 and is today one of the largest private jet operators with some 280 aircraft, and has 3,225 employees, 445 of which are based in Malta.

AirX, which has 16 jets, was founded in 2011 by John Matthews and is also registered and operates in Malta.

The bitter rivalry between the two companies can be witnessed on LinkedIn, where Matthews regularly posts missives taking to task VistaJet’s financials, Thomas Flohr’s comments to the press, and now, the claims advanced in the Maltese courts by the company.

In the international press, questions were raised back in 2023 about the debts accumulated by VistaJet throughs its expansionist investment and dealmaking. The Financial Times reported disclosures to bondholders showing net losses of $436 million, and debts of $4.4 billion as Vista’s fleet doubled to 360 jets with the acquisitions of Air Hamburg, Europe’s largest charter operator, and US-based Jet Edge.

One month before the FT story, Matthews began a series of over 20 articles he has since written and posted on LinkedIn, taking to task VistaJet as an ‘LMO’, or loss-making pperator.

VistaJet believes the information to the FT came from Matthews, with its lawyers informing the AirX founder in a legal letter that the documents from its investor portal – featured in separate London court filings – carried a a non-disclosure agreement.

VistaJet’s business model is based on a global fleet that can provide a jet to its subscriber clients with as little as 24 hours’ notice, without having to own the luxury asset. At the end of 2022, clients had paid $831 million up front for hours yet to be flown. Vista’s Jet Card customers sign three-year contracts that do not normally allow refunds.

But in 2022, the balance of “flight hours sold but not yet flown” increased by $179m. Rising debt and losses eating into its cash reserves led to auditors EY to note “a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern”.

Flohr replied to the FT report by saying the volume of pre-booked flights did not warrant concern, because the company only needed roughly 22% of clients’ up-front payments to fly the jets they book. The deposits are non-refundable and is not money that clients can withdraw. “We have a subscription business model. The key of this number is to serve these hours. It costs us about 22% of those numbers to actually fly them.”