Ch-aviation hiring in Zagreb

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

Ch-aviation hiring in Zagreb

NEWS FLASH

Swiss airline intelligence provider Ch-aviation will invest fourteen million kuna in Croatia over the next five years and create new Zagreb-based jobs. Ch-aviation is one of the leading airline intelligence providers in the world. Airlines, airports, finance and leasing companies, as well as other aviation industry stakeholders, are using data provided by Ch-aviation on a daily basis. Since 2016, its Croatian subsidiary, which is based in Zagreb, researches and maintains airline fleet, schedule as well as financial data. The Swiss company has now decided to invest further into its Croatian operations and grow its Zagreb-based subsidiary significantly. Thomas Jaeger, CEO of Ch-aviation explained, “I am very pleased to say that we are more than satisfied with our investment so far having recruited more than a dozen highly qualified colleagues in the country and it was an easy decision to grow our Croatian subsidiary further”. The current open positions for Croatia at Ch-aviation include Data Researchers, Aviation Journalists, Content & Digital Marketing Managers as well as Client Relationship Managers. Those interested can apply here. Max Oldorf, the Managing Director at Ch-aviation for Croatia added, “It is very sad to see so many well-educated Croatians leaving the country and I am really glad we can offer a very good alternative for graduates to stay. The aviation sector will grow tremendously in the next ten years and I am really optimistic we can build one of the largest aviation data hubs here in Croatia”.