LAVA is honoured to have designed and delivered a unique deal to transition Skytrail to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), protecting the future of the team and priming this exciting company for unfettered future growth.
Skytrail is an airline partner specialising in aircraft charter and series seat allocations for tour operators, cruise lines, and travel brokers. As an approved partner for major airlines like easyJet and British Airways, Skytrail is recognised for its ability to handle large-scale reservations, and offers a seamless booking process through its bespoke OPTO system.
Company leaders Neil Conley and Colin Williams approached LAVA looking to review the strategy and ownership structure for the future, having received acquisition overtures from major players within the industry but unsure if a sale to trade was the right move in the current environment.
The company has seen steady growth since recovering from Covid-era travel bans, and with a longstanding, experienced team in place, the time was right to reconsider the ownership of the company and secure a solid and sustainable future for the employees and the business. It was especially important to the leadership to be able to reward the wider team for their resilience though a highly challenging period for the travel sector, and ensure all employees can benefit from the progress they’ve been instrumental to.
Given ongoing conversations with additional major airlines, as well as other exciting development prospects on the horizon, it was immediately apparent to the LAVA team that employee ownership could be the right approach for Skytrail as they capitalise on these opportunities. As an EOT ourselves, LAVA was confident that protecting the employees’ investment in, and commitment to, the business, could secure a stable growth phase with a consistent, delivery-focused management team primed to take strategic, informed decisions.
Our people are incredibly important to us, so we really appreciated the fact that LAVA worked to understand exactly what would be best for the future of not just the company or us as shareholders, but the team, and it’s been great to have them walking us through every step of the EOT process to maximise the benefits for everyone at Skytrail.
Leadership team Skytrail
Additional airline partnerships aren’t the only exciting element of the Skytrail business. Their proprietary OPTO technology is an advanced, customer-centric solution that not only facilitates seamless customer journeys, but also enables forecasting and demand analysis that can be fed back to airline partners to influence additional routes, schedules and itineraries, presenting yet another opportunity for enhanced future value.
A complex deal from a regulatory perspective, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had to be informed due to ATOL requirements, and given time to review the deal. We understand this to be the first EOT transition of an ATOL-protected company so in forging new ground this transaction has paved the way for further employee ownership structures going forward. As an industry that relies so heavily on customer service, EOT’s are often an excellent fit for the travel and hospitality sectors, increasing staff loyalty and reducing turnover.
Having recently transitioned to an EOT ourselves, we could easily see how a similar structure could benefit the Skytrail team and secure this next phase of their journey, and it’s really exciting to see the heights they can attain in this new structure.
Millie Counsell Assistant Manager, LAVA
