On one side was Tommy Kelly, founder of global e-commerce giant ESW, and Barry English, founder of Winthrop Engineering. In 2022, they together bought a 2008 Cessna private aircraft for €7.5 million with room for eight passengers. To defray the high cost of running the jet, they engaged Canadian-owned and Shannon-based jet operator Acass on the basis that it could charter between 400 and 800 hours of flying to third parties each year. English said he acquired the plane for purely economic reasons as he found the cost of chartering flights  “a bit unpalatable”. He had spoken to some business…

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