Lai See | Steve Miller plans to start his third airline

Friends of Steve Miller can only shake their heads in disbelief at the news that, at the age of 74, he is attempting to start another airline. He has already started two - Dragonair, which is still flying, and Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, which nosedived after 17 months in 2008. According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, which is based in Florida, Miller has already set up the company, Sunrise Airlines of Sarasota and now just needs US$30 million to lease four Boeing 737s.

Miller, who was a longtime Hong Kong resident and is well known here, moved to Florida with his wife in 2011 where the airline bug has apparently bitten him again.

His business plan, the newspaper reported, proposed flying to 24 cities, including Los Angeles. In its first year, Miller aimed to fly to eight cities, including Baltimore, Detroit, Indianapolis and Boston. However, the story was published about a year ago and Miller, optimistic as ever, was anticipating taking to the air by October last year. But it appears that investors have so far been slow in coming forward.

The venture appears to have been prompted by the withdrawal of AirTran Airways from Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, leaving a gap in the market. Miller found his main backer for Oasis Airlines, Raymond Lee, in, of all places, a cinema queue. "He was standing behind me in the queue to see Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. We got talking and I decided to approach him."

Friends of Miller will be hoping that he does not find the backing for this new venture and put himself through the wringer yet again.