The French airline Aigle Azur flies. She announced Thursday, September 5 the cancellation of all flights from Friday night, without compensation immediately for its customers, and must find a buyer in the weekend not to sink.

"The financial situation of the company and the resulting operational difficulties do not ensure flights beyond the evening of September 6", said in a statement the specialist links to Algeria, which represent 50 to 60 % of its activity.

The company has also warned its customers to make a return flight after Friday that they would be "forced to buy another return ticket.The financial situation of the company does not guarantee compensation."

After having interrupted the connections to or from Mali, Brazil and Portugal earlier on Thursday, Aigle Azur announced at the end of the day, first to its employees, then to its customers, to have no other choice than to nail down all of his appliances.

For the last day Friday, 44 flights were maintained, all with the exception of one connecting France and Algeria.

Degradation of cash

At the Paris-Orly airport, the main base of Aigle Azur, the situation was "calm" on Thursday morning, "because the company was able to warn the passengers upstream.There were just a few people yesterday with the cancellation of a flight on Bamako ", according to the border police.

In a letter to employees, the company says that "the search for buyers continues actively and continues during the stopping of flights."

Time is running out for the second French airline: potential buyers have until Monday, September 9 at noon to submit their offer.

The acceleration of events is due to the deterioration of cash, far from the 25 million euros mentioned in August by former CEO Frantz Yvelin, according to Martin Surzur, president of the Aigle Azur SNPL pilot union and member of the works council. Frantz Yvelin resigned Wednesday.

"The cut-and-sell that is coming up in the context of a liquidation approaching, we clearly refuse," said Martin Surzur Thursday evening. "Many air transport players are waiting for this liquidation to make their market at the lowest cost, with an erasure of liabilities and debts."

A nugget of 9,800 slots

As part of the recovery, wages are no longer paid by the company but supported by a guarantee system (AGS). About 15 million euros are stuck in Algeria and "difficult to repatriate", according to Martin Surzur. Cash that the company desperately needs.

The government assured that the embassy in Algiers was doing "all possible steps" to facilitate the repatriation of funds.

Aigle Azur has assets likely to interest a buyer, plead his employees, including traffic rights to Algeria that give him a place of choice on this destination. The company has a nugget of 9,800 slots in Orly, where the total for all companies is capped at 250,000.

"The SNPL asked the Minister of Transport for an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister in Matignon in the presence of key players in a recovery, Lionel Guerin and Air France," said Martin Surzur.

He added that with "all employees, we decided to demonstrate as early Saturday in Orly as many days as necessary until a solution is found".

Former Air France executives as potential buyers

Several potential buyers have expressed interest, without knowing if they will submit an offer. Among them are Lionel Guerin and Philippe Micouleau, former leaders of the Air France group, according to union sources. The name of the Dubreuil group, owner of Air Caraïbes, was also mentioned.

Gérard Houa, a minority shareholder who had attempted a coup to take control of the company at the end of August, has in turn denounced in a statement "a dangerous and illegal liquidation" against which he "took several actions before the competent courts ".

Aigle Azur has 1,150 employees, including 350 in Algeria. The company has a fleet of 11 aircraft and transported 1.88 million passengers in 2018, during which time it generated a turnover of 300 million euros.

With AFP