Paris (AFP)

Aigle Azur has received 14 offers of recovery, which are to be improved and "are not executable as they are", said Monday the airline at the end of an extraordinary works council (EC) started in the afternoon.

The judicial administrator of Aigle Azur has received "14 expressions of interest mainly for isolated assets", but also for "more comprehensive recovery projects", said the company placed in receivership, in a statement at the end of evening.

"These offers of recovery of the company are all to perfect and are not executable in the state", according to the same source, which specifies that "their industrial seriousness and their financing will have to be confirmed within the deadlines".

If a series of potential buyers have thus expressed their interest in Aigle Azur, the future still remained unclear for the 1,150 employees of the airline, specialist service to Algeria.

For Denis Sanchez, representative of FO SNPNC, questioned at the end of the EC, the presentation of the offers was "summary", offering a "first image" before a possible evolution of the proposals.

"With the organs of the procedure, the judicial administrator will now try to put in state these offers in order to reach a plan of cession", for its part indicated Aigle Azur in its release.

Questioned earlier Monday on Franceinfo television, Secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari had mentioned "statements of intent and partial offers that are partial offers high", referring to "those of Air France or that of Gérard Houa, who preserve the vast majority of jobs ".

A new extraordinary EC will be held Friday mid-day to give an opinion on the proposals of the buyers, before a hearing in the commercial court next Monday.

Air France has confirmed to AFP to have submitted an offer, without giving the content in the immediate future. The Dubreuil group, the majority owner of Air Caraïbes, also told AFP that it had submitted such an offer, also being stingy with details. Lu Azur, led by Mr. Houa, already a 20% shareholder in Aigle Azur, has announced that it plans to take over 90% of the business.

- Interest for the slots of Orly -

"There are obviously two major areas of activity: the long-haul, which interests Air Caraïbes and the Dubreuil group, and then there is the heart of activity France-Algeria and France-Maghreb which interests rather buyers such as Air France, "said Mr. Djebbari, who received the unions in the day of Monday.

According to the CFDT, Air France would take 70% of the staff based in France and Dubreuil offer 106 people. With these two offers combined, there would still be 150 people on the floor.

For Loïc Philippot, vice president of SNPL Aigle Azur, one of the offers "seems to hold the rope, that of (Lionel) Guérin", the former CEO of Hop! (Air France group). "There is also that of Mr. Houa", which caused a coup in late August by ousting CEO Frantz Yvelin.

Mr Philippot, speaking Monday evening on the sidelines of the EC, said that the offer of Air France "seems for the moment relatively limited" while that of Mr. Guérin is "the only complete with resumption of all employees ". The former leader of Hop! would put between 40 and 50 million in the envelope, with employee participation of 5 million euros, assured the union leader.

Among other potential buyers, EasyJet has confirmed to AFP "have expressed interest in the operations of Aigle Azur Orly". Vueling did the same, according to a union source.

- Financial stalemate -

The great Spanish actor of the "low cost" is above all interested in the landing slots of which Aigle Azur has Paris-Orly. This is a set of 9,800 annual slots at this airport where the total for all companies is capped at 250,000.

In receivership, Aigle Azur is in such a financial stalemate that it can neither financially compensate its customers, nor even ensure the repatriation of travelers whose return flight has been canceled.

With its 11 aircraft, Aigle Azur carried 1.88 million passengers in 2018.

cda-dec-jug-vac-lem / st / am

© 2019 AFP