Planned Ecojet Airlines flights grounded, staff protections set as company enters liquidation
Planned commercial services are now grounded and employee entitlements will be handled by provisional liquidators, reshaping the immediate launch plans for Ecojet Airlines. End of January at 9: 00 a. m. ET, documents show a petition to wind up the company reached Edinburgh Sheriff Court and joint interim liquidators were appointed.
Immediate grounding halts the Edinburgh–Southampton launch and wider route plans
Ecojet Airlines’ initial service between Edinburgh and Southampton, which had been pencilled in as the carrier’s first route, will not proceed while the company is in liquidation. The airline had been promoted as an all-electric start-up with ambitions for mainland Europe and long-haul services, but its commercial flights never got off the ground.
Opus Restructuring named provisional liquidators after a failed £20 million fundraising push
Documents from the end of January name Paul Dounis and Mark Harper of Opus Restructuring as provisional liquidators after a petition was brought to Edinburgh Sheriff Court. The petition followed an alleged attempt to raise £20 million (GBP) for the business, and Opus confirmed the move followed a voluntary liquidation initiated by the company’s board.
Dale Vince’s retrofit plan and prior commitments, including engine purchases, face collapse
Ecojet Airlines was launched in 2023 by businessman Dale Vince and promoted on a parent company site as planning to retrofit conventional planes with hydrogen-electric powertrains to achieve net-zero, emission-free flights. Promotional material claimed the conversion approach would save 90, 000 tonnes of carbon per year and that the only byproduct would be water; earlier steps toward the project included the purchase of 70 hydrogen-electric engines tied to the conversion plan.
Opus told stakeholders that “Ecojet was a start-up business and has no material assets, ” and that the company’s members had elected to fund the liquidation process to ensure employees receive their full statutory entitlements. That funding decision frames the immediate financial pathway for staff pay while the legal winding-up proceeds.
Still, the liquidation moves leave unresolved technical and financing elements of the project: the retrofit concept relied on converting existing aircraft rather than building new models, and prior reporting indicates that financing problems and missed demonstration deadlines had stalled progress. Those operational and regulatory steps had been central to Ecojet’s ability to begin scheduled flights.
For now, commercial operations are paused and the company’s stated environmental claims and retrofit timetable are in limbo. The petition and the appointment of provisional liquidators close the window on the planned launch timetable until the court process and liquidation mechanics advance.
The next formal step is the Edinburgh Sheriff Court’s processing of the winding-up petition; no hearing date has been confirmed as of 9: 00 a. m. ET. If the company’s members continue to fund the voluntary liquidation, employees will receive their full statutory entitlements under the liquidation process within the statutory timelines that govern such cases.
