Flybe inks Croatia Airlines interline

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

Flybe inks Croatia Airlines interline

NEWS FLASH

British regional carrier Flybe has signed a new interline agreement with Croatia Airlines, opening up new connections via London Heathrow Airport and other European hubs. It follows similar partnerships Flybe has made in recent months with Air Serbia, Turkish Airlines, Thai Airways, Wideroe and LOT Polish Airlines. The move will allow agents to connect customers to and from various European destinations using the Zagreb-based airline. Alan Tune, Flybe's Director of Sales, Alliances and Strategic Partnerships, said, “We continue to increase our wide range of interline arrangements enabling our travel trade partners to issue more tickets to an even greater number of destination options. For our regional customers, interline travel booked through a travel agent gives them the opportunity to enjoy the ease of travelling on an interline ticket with their bags checked through to the final destination. It makes their transit through a Flybe hub airports a really convenient experience”.

Flybe boasts a fleet of 75 aircraft and was recently purchased by Connect Airways, a consortium comprising of Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Aviation. It will eventually operate under the Virgin brand.

Comments

Anonymous12:16
Nice! Considering they are owned by Virgin Atlantic, we might see VK CS soon cooperating as well.
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Anonymous12:37
Fly(may)be... Punctuality and interaction with delayed passengers are not their strong suits.
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Anonymous12:47
Flybe are not in a very good financial position at the moment.
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Anonymous11:15
Flybe should review their restrictive baggage policy first, then (may be) they will be more profitable
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