The Hop! pilot training center by Icare, is saved and bought in 2022 by private parties. He becomes Icarus again. Since then, despite a development plan, the company has also been plagued by difficulties and was placed in receivership in May 2024. In 2021, the Norman company Chalair installed a maintenance support telephone platform at the Morlaix CCI. Since April 2024, it has occupied a former Hop! building. Finally, in 2023, Brittany Ferries joined them. At the same time, in 2022, the buildings left vacant after the departure of Hop! were bought by Morlaix community.
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2 Act 2: hope is reborn with Celeste
In September 2021, serious hope was reborn with the creation of the airline Celeste, which took up residence on the airport site. The Orly-Brest line, left vacant after the departure of Air France, is the reason for this. It even finds itself in pole position to recover it, after the withdrawal of Chalair in November 2023. For two and a half years, the company employs and trains cabin crew, pilots, etc.
On the financial side, over the months, CCI, communities, private investors commit to supporting the start-up of the company with several million euros. Everyone is optimistic after obtaining the Air Carrier Certificate (CTA) in March 2023. But it will, however, never obtain the operating license awarded by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC), essential to take off planes.
According to our information, the Morlaix company sent a total of thirteen different applications in order to obtain this license. All were rejected by the DGAC, which considered that the various financing plans did not meet the essential conditions, judging that the company was missing several million euros. This made any first commercial flight and any turnover impossible.
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3 Act 3: Celeste’s setbacks
Nailed to the ground, the company, which until recently employed six employees, saw its funds dwindle over the months due to salaries and other charges to be paid. In mid-May 2024, the Brest commercial court ordered the Morlais-based company to be placed in receivership. Then opening the way to new investors for a recovery. According to a source close to the matter, two potential buyers came forward: businessman Maxime Ray – who had just liquidated his airline in Lorient, Millésime Aviation – and Franck Chatellier, former airline pilot at the head of ‘Ocean Airways, airline based in Nantes. The Regourd Aviation group had also positioned itself for a time, but before the judicial recovery decision.
Celeste’s placement in judicial liquidation, just pronounced, means that none of these three options ultimately found favor in the eyes of the Brest commercial court or Celeste. There is only one potential recourse left: to appeal this decision. According to an email that Le Télégramme was able to consult, the Morlaisian company reserves the right since it mentioned this possibility to its directors and shareholders, inviting them to “evaluate its relevance together”.
When contacted, neither Bruno Besnehard, CEO of Celeste, nor Jean-Paul Vermot, president of Morlaix community, wished to react for the moment, pending a potential appeal. Only Jean-Paul Chapalain, president of the Morlaix delegation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Finistère, agreed to speak. Clearly disappointed, he wants to point out: “If everyone has been struggling for two and a half years with Celeste, it is because we are trying to manage the damage caused by the departure of Air France. »
