Lawrence Hunt will have pulled off the deal of his life if Silverjet returns to the skies between New York and Luton.
An agreement on Tuesday between administrator Begbies Traynor and the Irish arm of Swiss investment-management company Heritage could be signed off on Friday and, assuming the CAA approves, the airline will be flying within a month or so.
That would be a remarkable recovery. All seemed lost two weeks ago when the carrier ceased flying. Airlines rarely, if ever, return from the dead.
The CAA will judge whether the proffered £50 million is enough to see the carrier through untold months of losses. The big question will be whether customers and the trade return.
Passengers clearly loved flying with Silverjet and the trade had nothing but praise for the airline. It was brought down by the oil price and the squeeze on credit - factors likely to strangle any start-up carrier.
There is no reason to believe an all-business class airline is inherently unprofitable in every circumstance - a fact acknowledged by Willie Walsh when he insisted recently that there was nothing wrong with Silverjet's business model.
However, Lawrence had cause to bemoan the lack of confidence he felt travel agents showed in the carrier once its future appeared in doubt, and the confidence of those booking seats will be a major factor in how far Silverjet mark 11 takes off - because the circumstances that brought down mark 1 have not changed.