Eurowings shelves Dusseldorf

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

Eurowings shelves Dusseldorf - Mostar flights

NEWS FLASH

Low cost carrier Eurowings will discontinue one of two of its seasonal summer flights to Mostar next year. The airline will terminate services from Dusseldorf, while continuing to maintain flights from Stuttgart. "Eurowings came to this decision because the aircraft it uses on services to Mostar is more appropriate for shorter flights and it was not profitable for them to keep this route. Initially, plans were to upgrade the equipment, however, this did not materialise. On the other hand, they confirmed they are keeping flights from Stuttgart, so at least we will still be linked to Germany", the airport said in a statement. Despite the cancellation, Eurowings will receive full subsidies based on the contract it signed with local authorities this year, worth just over a quarter of a million euros on a yearly basis until 2023 (inclusive). Mostar Airport recently launched a new incentives program in a bid to attract carriers and end its passenger decline.

Comments

Anonymous13:58
OMO just can't catch a break.
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Anonymous18:06
How can EW get the same subsidies for half the amount of services? What incompetent "manager" at OMO agreed to this sort of deal and is he or she fired yet?
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Athos_cro20:37
Hehehehehe. Halb trinken halb šarac geben
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Anonymous11:02
I see it on sale on their website together with STR
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Eurowings shelves Dusseldorf - Mostar flights

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