Flight Design GmbH pursues restructuring

The managing director of Flight Design general aviation GmbH from Eisenach filed an application to open insolvency proceedings with the responsible district court in Meiningen on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024. The district court then appointed lawyer Marcello Di Stefano as provisional insolvency administrator.

According to an initial assessment, Mr. Di Stefano sees good opportunities for restructuring. “The company’s order situation is good and the products have a very good reputation on the international market, and the outstanding debts are manageable,” says Di Stefano. In the coming weeks, he sees one of his most urgent tasks as enabling the financing of business operations through intensive negotiations. “This would make it possible to maintain the Flight Design Group with its EASA Design and Production Organizations and the F-Series and CT-Series aircraft and to finalize the existing orders and hand over the aircraft to the customers.”

According to the management, the insolvency application became necessary because, on the one hand, an international customer has not yet paid undisputed claims in the mid-six-figure range and another payment in the mid-six-figure range was also delayed. The management was looking for alternative financing channels and investors. In addition to a signed but unpaid contract for €1 million, the main shareholder could not agree to a short-term offer from an investor.

Flight Design general aviation, based at Kindl airfield in Hörselberg-Hainich and production sites in Sumperk, Czech Republic, and Kherson, Ukraine, claims to be one of the world market leaders in the manufacture of light aircraft. The company develops and produces aircraft in Germany, Sumperk Czech Republic, and Kherson, Ukraine. The company is active in 48 markets worldwide. By issuing licenses, aircraft should also be manufactured internationally in China.

Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the temporary occupation of Kherson, production in Sumperk had to be rebuilt. Deliveries and thus sales could be ramped up again in the summer of 2024. There are currently 10 employees working in Germany, as well as 70 employees in the Czech Republic and 20 employees in the Ukraine. Since the company was founded in 1988 and the production facility was set up in Ukraine in 1993, the company has delivered more than 2,000 aircraft.