Évry (AFP)

Broken hope for Aigle Azur and its 1,150 employees: no offer of recovery has been retained for the specialist airline of Algeria, which will stop its activity Friday night, announced the Commercial Court of Evry.

"We had hoped until the end that something happens," regretted Bruno Forey, CFDT, the first union of the company. "It seems that we want French air transport to focus solely on Air France," he said, saying he was "deeply disappointed".

For her part, the president of the commercial court Sonia Arrouas regretted in a statement a decision "difficult" because "everything had been implemented to save employees". "The end of the continuation of activity will take place tonight, Friday, September 27 at midnight," she added.

Specifically, "the liquidator has 21 days to dismiss everyone," said Bruno Forey. "It's the legal term: there is no plan for safeguarding employment, so everyone is dismissed at least legally, we will be going to Pôle emploi in 21 days".

Aigle Azur, which specializes in links with Algeria and the Mediterranean basin, employs 1,150 people, including 800 in France and 350 in Algeria.

- "Disclaimers" and "Absence of concrete offers" -

The company, whose 11 aircraft have not flown since September 7, had been placed in liquidation on September 16 with continued activity until Friday to give the buyers time to improve their offers of recovery.

But finally, "no durable solution was proposed by the buyers buyers," said Arrouas, deploring "the withdrawal or absence of concrete offers, the lack of financial means credible candidates", "indeterminacy the source of funds "or" the inadmissibility of certain proposals ".

Two offers were studied, one from two former leaders of Air France, Lionel Guerin and Philippe Micouleau, subject to obtaining a participatory loan of 15 million euros from the State, the other presented by Lu Azur, a minority shareholder in Aigle Azur up to 19%.

"One could not be chosen because it was based on a majority of extra-community capital, the other was accompanied by state aid," Bruno Forey, also a member of the Social Committee, told AFP. economic of the company.

-Conditions "complicated" -

Air France, an interested time, had finally not submitted an offer. "There are some interesting assets" but the legal and social conditions "are rather complicated," said Benjamin Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM, Friday at a press conference in Toulouse.

Linking the situation of Aigle Azur to that of another company in difficulty, XL Airways, an inter-union air transport has expressed his "anger" in an open letter to Mr. Djebbari, denouncing "the ills that gangrenous, gently but surely, our activity ". They regret "a distortion of competition built on social dumping and tax optimization".

"The French market is very fragmented", for its part estimated Mr. Smith, judging "there was going to be a consolidation" in France. "I think it would be a good thing (...) the companies based here in France would be stronger and could grow."

According to Bruno Forey in any case, Air France will win with the end of Aigle Azur: "half of the slots" landing and takeoff at Orly airport "must be redistributed in proportion to the activity, and will come back to Air France-Transavia, "he says.

Slots made available, highly coveted because their total is capped, will be reallocated to interested companies after one month by the Cohor Coordination Association (Cohor).

mpf-jlp-MRA-cda / st / Lys

© 2019 AFP