Jim French

Airline flotations have an inglorious recent history in the UK. They include now-defunct Silverjet and Maxjet, business-class-only transatlantic carriers that went out of business during the credit crunch. French, a senior hand in the business, says Flybe is coming to market as an established company with a proven business model, carrying 7.2 million passengers and reporting a pre-tax profit of £6.8m last year. "This is a different scenario," he says. George Soros appears to agree, after the billionaire US hedge fund manager took a 3.4% stake in the business to become its fourth-largest shareholder behind the estate of the late Jack Walker, steel tycoon and former Blackburn Rovers owner, which controls 49%.