Florida Air, Inc. Reid Patton 9/15/2015

Florida Air’s Problems The biggest problem Florida Air is facing is financing. The business plan has been constructed and reconstructed as Dan Stilton and Scott Bettor and Henry Tellsworth have consulted with industry professionals and potential investors, Florida Air has not been able to secure substantial financing even from people with significant interest. People were fearful of being the first investor but were willing to put up significant financing when Florida Air was close to closing financing. Dan, Henry, and Scott had too many people in the “Interested but Not Now” file. Florida Air did have some breakthroughs when Fairchild, an airline supplier, agreed to sell four plans to Florida Air with no money down. Karen Ellison, a semi personal connection of Scott’s, agreed to finance Florida Air for $100,000. Florida Air also potentially had funding from Clayton Field, a local orange baron, for $500,000.Then Lakeland Florida’s community board of supervisors considered giving Florida Air $300,000 in a low interest loan. However, a larger airlines now was planning to compete on some of Florida Air’s routes. Because of this, Lakeland decided against financing Florida Air and Clayton Field also was becoming hesitant about investing because of the onset of competition. To make matters worse, the entire time Florida Air is having financing issues, they are also having issues with leadership. Although Henry is attractive on paper because of his previous experience in the industry, he is becoming progressively more lazy and unreliable. Scott and Dan are considering removing him from the team. As the case ends, Scott and Dan have about 30 days of money left to keep the venture afloat, and they need to figure out how to deal with Henry, the competition, and the cold feet of their financers.

One page should be an analysis of the financials (the numbers are easy—we add, subtract, multiply, and divide)

One page should be a recommendation (where it shows you understood and considered the alternatives)