Ecojet Airlines: UK zero-emission regional carrier owned by Labour donor Dale Vince collapses into liquidation without ever launching flights
A UK airline owned by Labour donor Dale Vince has collapsed into liquidation - before it even launched any flights.
Unveiled in 2023 with the strapline “the airline for a Green Britain”, Ecojet struggled from the outset, repeatedly pushing back deadlines for launch. The airline was created out of Vince’s idea for there to be a zero-emission regional carrier.
However the airline has ended without it even getting off the ground, following the appointment of provisional liquidators to Ecojet Airlines. Despite an extensive recruitment drive in anticipation of the commencement of operations in early 2024 – a date later pushed back by at least one year – most staff were laid off in January 2025 as the start-up struggled to attract external funding.
And now the company’s directors have now opted to pull the plug. The demise of the proposed airline comes after The Telegraph revealed last year that it sacked almost its entire workforce, retaining just two staff from a team of 13.
Redundancies were made after Mr Vince struggled to raise £20m to kickstart the airline and secure an air operator’s certificate from the UK Civil Aviation Authority. A spokesman insisted at the time that an “airline for a Green Britain is still coming”, claiming advisers at Wyvern Partners had been tasked with raising funds for the business.
However, Mr Vince confirmed his decision to halt investment earlier this month. He said: “We remain committed to electrifying all forms of transport – aviation is the last frontier and the hardest.
“It’s taking longer than we hope to get the technology and regulatory pieces of the puzzle in alignment, and so we’re pausing work at this time.” He added: “This is a vital frontier in the move to net zero, green living, whatever you choose to call it – and it’s absolutely doable. It’s a matter of when not if.”
Alongside Vince, Ecojet was run by chief executive Brent Smith, a former airline pilot, with ex-Air Malta chief Peter Davies its third director. Davies is also a founder of consultancy Airline Management Group whose subsidiary AMG Ventures initially held a small stake in Ecojet.
Ecojet was set up by Smith in 2021 as Fresh Airlines, before changing its name in 2023. Despite scrapping involvement in Ecojet, Mr Vince still controls renewable energy supplier Ecotricity and owns Skydiamond, a lab-grown diamond company.
He also runs Forest Green Rovers, which styles itself as the world’s first vegan football club. Vince is a British green energy entrepreneur, author, and environmentalist. He founded Ecotricity in 1995, the world's first green energy company.