Skopje Airport overhauls apron, taxiway

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

Skopje Airport overhauls apron, taxiway

NEWS FLASH

Skopje Airport has used the ongoing coronavirus Covid-19 crisis to perform maintenance work and overhaul part of its apron and its “A” taxiway. Construction company Granit has been contracted to carry out the work. Skopje Airport has been closed for commercial traffic since March 18, however, cargo and repatriation services have been ongoing over the past weeks, with more to come.

Comments

Anonymous11:16
At least they are smart enough to use the closing time well
ReplyDelete
Replies
Aviation11:17
At least they are using the closing time well.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Anonymous11:50
They should do some maintenance work in the terminal building as well.
Far from desolate, but e.g. the restrooms could also profit from a makeover.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Anonymous13:37
At least they use the closing time well.
ReplyDelete
Replies
vae13:40
Bravo!
ReplyDelete
Replies
Anonymous19:12
Браво Скопје !
ReplyDelete
Replies
azdren19:04
good use of the closure of airport to do maintenance work ! hopefully Ohrid Airport will get some maintenance done as well
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Search This Site

Skopje Airport overhauls apron, taxiway

Comments

Post a Comment