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14 bids emerge for stricken French airline, but none ‘feasible’
PARIS, Sept 10, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – France’s Aigle Azur airline has received
14 takeover bids as it seeks to stave off a collapse that would put its 1,150
employees out of work, but it said all would have to be improved because they
aren’t “feasible” for now.
“These takeover offers for the company all need to be refined and are not
feasible in their current form,” the company said late Monday.
Some 13,000 passengers, mainly on the airline’s core Algeria routes, remain
stranded after Aigle Azur filed for bankruptcy last week and cancelled all
flights as of Friday night.
A new works council meeting has been set for Friday, ahead of a court
hearing on Monday, to evaluate improved offers due later this week.
Air France, the country’s flag carrier, has tabled an offer, though it
declined to elaborate on whether it was for the entire airline or only
specific assets.
EasyJet confirmed in had lodged a bid, as has fellow low-cost operator
Vueling, union sources said.
The Dubreuil group, which owns Air Caraibes, told AFP it had made a bid, as
has Lionel Guerin, the former CEO of Air France’s low-cost subsidiary Hop.
“Obviously there are two main activities: the long-haul flights, which
would interest Air Caraibes, and then the core France-Algeria and France-
Maghreb operations, which would interest candidates like Air France,”
France’s secretary of state for transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, told
France Info radio on Monday.
Aigle Azur operates 11 planes but unions say potential suitors are likely
to be most interested in its landing slots at Paris Orly, the city’s second-
biggest airport, after Charles de Gaulle.
Aigle Azur transported last year some 1.9 million passengers, with
destinations in Algeria making up half of its operations that brought in 300
million euros ($329 million) of revenue.
BSS/AFP/RY/15:05 hrs