Strong August for Pristina Airport

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

Strong August for Pristina Airport

NEWS FLASH

Pristina Airport has registered a strong start to August with passenger numbers growing 18.7% during the first week of the month when compared to the same period last year. The airport has welcomed an average of 11.420 travellers per day or a total of 79.937 passengers on 521 flights between August 1 and 7. It follows on from a record 1.338.994 travellers handled during the first seven months of the year.

Comments

Anonymous14:15
Bad news for SKP, the difference will be quite big this year if PRN continues like this. Such strong performance will also reduce the difference with DBV. The three airports were literally tied last month!
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Anonymous14:47
They are publishing results on a weekly basis now? xD
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Anonymous17:45
300k PAX this August then! this months PRN should detach from SKP
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azdren20:38
going to go down to wire bewteen PRN and SKP !
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Strong August for Pristina Airport

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