Split Airport handles millionth passenger

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

SAA sold

South Africa agreed to sell a majority stake in the country’s grounded national carrier to a local jet-leasing company and private-equity firm, ridding the government of an entity that has long been a drain on state finances. A consortium comprised of Johannesburg-based Global Airways, which owns recently launched domestic airline Lift, and private-equity firm Harith General Partners will take a 51% shareholding in South African Airways (SAA), Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said. The government will retain a minority stake. The grouping named Takatso will invest as much as 3.5 billion rand ($258 million) over the next three years, Lift co-founder, Gidon Novick, and Harith Chief Executive Officer, Tshepo Mahloele, said in an interview. “Government will have no further financial obligations to the company, outside of the existing liabilities that they will settle”, Novick said. He added, “Route networks we are still working on, and it will be a phased roll-out based on demand re-emerging post Covid”. The sale of SAA comes about six weeks after the airline emerged from lengthy bankruptcy proceedings, having reduced its workforce by almost 80% and cut liabilities to about 2.6 billion rand. The next challenge is to resume international flights, though South Africa remains cut off from much of the world due to pandemic travel restrictions. A longer-term goal is to list the carrier on a stock exchange, Gordhan said. In the meantime, the government will retain special voting rights to ensure the airline remains in the country, among other national priorities. The deal represents a triumph of sorts for Gordhan, who has argued for the revival of SAA with the help of private investors while others were calling for it to be liquidated. While SAA is now “solvent and liquid,” business-rescue practitioners said when handing over the aircraft, subsidiaries including low cost arm Mango and maintenance firm SAA Technical remain under financial strain and are in the process of being recapitalized. The Department of Public Enterprises and the new consortium will together assess the future of the divisions as part of the due diliegence process, Gordhan said.
Source: Bloomberg

Split Airport handles millionth passenger

NEWS FLASH

Split Airport handled its millionth passenger of the year over the weekend. The airport has seen its numbers grow 15.7% so far in 2018. It anticipates welcoming its second millionth traveller in August and its record third millionth passenger by year's end. Split Airport's General Manager, Lukša Novak, previously said, "It took us ten years to grow from one million to two million travellers. Before the war, the airport was handling around a million passengers per year. However, it took us just three years to increase our figures from two million travellers to 2.8 million. In 2018 we will handle three million passengers". Split has cemented its position as the third busiest airport in the former Yugoslavia and was ahead of its counterpart in Zagreb for several months during 2017. However, Mr Novak noted that Split has no ambitions to surpass Zagreb Airport's traffic figures and become the country's busiest. "We want to be an effective regional airport. We need to work to stimulate traffic in the winter months", the General Manager said.

Comments

Anonymous12:28
To bi okvirno znacilo cca 450 000 tijekom lipnja.
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Anonymous12:43
Interesting, very interesting.
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Anonymous12:54
To bi okvirno bilo cca 175 000 putnika vise n3go za isto razdoblje prosle godine.
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Google Driver18:49
what a huge peak in july and august
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Anonymous22:24
This is horrible news for the local community!
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