Here’s a challenge for you if you happen to be holidaying in the Med this summer. Let’s say you’re going to start in Tangier in early July (before too many residents of Paris’s Marais district show up on August 1), then you want to go to Ibiza to drop in on some friends for three nights (before the hordes descend from the UK and Italy). After that you’d like to dash up to Liguria and from there you’re planning a bit of Mykonos followed by Beirut. As you’re a sensible type, you’ve planned your holiday hops from east to west so you don’t have to double back and while all those one-ways might add up, at least it will be a straightforward, stress-free journey. Or will it?

I attempted to fly from Palma, Mallorca to Nice last Sunday and while the journey wasn’t tortuous it certainly revealed an enormous opportunity for someone to take a leaf or two from the Phoenicians’ logbook and explore the possibilities of a Med-centric airline.

You might recall Nicolas Sarkozy’s conference sur la Med last summer where he made some first steps towards creating stronger links around the Mediterranean basin. So far, little seems to have been done to connect any of the traditional trading ports in aviation terms – and even less for those seasonal resorts that might be looking for easier links in a year that’s likely to see many European tourists staying a bit closer to home.

At this newspaper’s Business of Luxury conference in Monaco earlier in the week, I mentioned this idea from the podium as a potential concept worth pursuing and was surprised to find there were a number of takers during a mid-morning break-out session. While one or two people argued that the only people who need that type of trans-Med connectivity are probably chartering private jets, I countered that there were tens of thousands more who don’t fly private and not only need such connections for pleasure but also for work.

So what would this airline look like? Where would it fly? What would it serve on board? And what would the crew wear? It would be key to figure out the staffing. Would it make more sense to crew the airline from the lower-wage Maghreb countries or leave it to the Spanish or the Lebanese to run? Or should the hub be in Nice and the flavour fully French? Or what about a place that few people have much of an opinion about? Malta comes to mind.

If I were the chief executive of this fantasy carrier, I’d have to be something of a diplomat and spread the opportunities across the region. I’d set up bases in Palma, Nice, Pisa, Malta (for maintenance) and Beirut. With a mixed fleet of propeller and jet aircraft, the contracts would have to go to Airbus and Alenia to keep jobs in and around Toulouse and Turin.

On the crew front, my jury’s out on who I’d have in the cockpit but I’d definitely have Italians to man the on-board espresso machines and I’d hire my friend Kamal Mouzawak to be my chief catering officer and have him demonstrate why Lebanon’s mezze culture was made for in-flight meal service. Along with produce sourced in the Bekaa Valley and the Chouf Mountains, he’d also select the best reds from Spain, rosés from Provence, whites from Italy and beer from Turkey.

After food, uniforms would be the second most exciting element and I’d leave the sourcing to my Galician friend Sagra who’d have a sleepy little espadrille firm do a smart shoe for both men and women, find an emerging French designer to produce dresses and knitwear ensembles for the girls and a solid tailor from Genoa to do the designs and manufacturing for the stewards’ and pilots’ uniforms.

On board, cabinetry would be assigned to one of Turkey’s better ship interior firms and Toufic Farroukh would not only write the airline’s theme song but also do the programming for boarding music. The Spanish brand Sargadelos would do a custom range of ceramics that would fast find their way into passengers’ totes and briefcases. For the seat pocket in front I’d personally look after the publishing and deliver a micro-sized version of this paper that would be printed digitally at our main bases twice a day. The magazine would be a collection of short pieces, both fiction and non-fiction, and for children there would be a collectable history series aimed at teaching the most junior of passengers a little bit about the Mediterranean.

I’m hoping by this point I’ve painted enough of a picture to help someone pluck up the courage to venture out into the market and have such an airline start plying the skies between St Tropez and Naples, Malaga and Palermo, Bodrum and Valencia, Tunis and Palma, Nice and Pantelleria. There is no shortage of spare aircraft out there just waiting to be snatched up – and even more passengers just looking for an aviation brand with which they can have a passionate summer affair.

Tyler Brûlé is editor-in-chief of Monocle
tyler.brule@ft.com
More columns at www.ft.com/brule