Chris Foyle OBE *

Living in two worlds (and perhaps a third when resident in Monaco in his later life) Chris Foyle has passed on.

Larry Coyne, CEO of the cargo carrier Coyne Airways, said: “Chris Foyle was an all-round good guy who made deep impressions on people he met and industries he worked in. He was very smart, but always modest despite his many successes.  I will remember him for his generosity, his good nature and, most of all, his sense of humour”.

Chris was involved in aviation in a big way (Air Foyle based at Luton Airport held the initial AOC for easyJet) and Foyles, the world’s greatest bookshop, which he administered after the passing of his aunt Christina in 1999 until the Charing Cross Road enterprise was sold to Waterstones in 2014, with the proviso that the Foyles name must endure.  

In 2005 he became a trustee of his family’s charity, the Foyle Foundation, which gives £5m a year to UK charities in the fields of education and learning and the arts.  For some years in his later life a resident of Monaco, in 2014 he founded The Air League of Monaco with HSH Prince Albert II and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou as its principal patrons. The League gives 25 scholarships and awards a year to young people with aspirations for a career in aviation.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Royal Geographical Society and the Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics, a Liveryman of the Honourable Company of Air Pilots and a Freeman of the City of London. He was also Deputy Lord Lieutenant of the County of Essex and a former Chairman of The Air League.

Chris Foyle is survived by his wife, Cathy, and daughters Charlotte, Annabel, Christine Foyle..

On 22 June 2015 BTN reported on the Foyles bookshop.

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Chris Pocock, Uxbridge, UK

It was a pleasure to discuss the airfreight business with Chris when I edited an air cargo magazine many years ago. He was personable, generous, entertaining, and a great entrepreneur.

Paul Moore, London

Chris Foyle perused many aspects of the aviation industry at all times with vigour and integrator. I know this because I had the pleasure of working with him on the start up of a number of passenger airlines

Michael Davis, Swizerland

RIP Chris Foyle, great aviation man, unfailingly charming and good humoured, fly well !