More questions
There are a lot of questions still unanswered here.
Above all how can European continue to trade without going into administration or receivership if it has not paid us? A “Creditor’s Voluntary Agreement” is all very well but how do you choose which of the creditors to pay or negotiate a “voluntary agreement” with?
I’ve also had some advice from a friend of the family today who reckons that it is going to be very time consuming to claim statutory redundancy payments from the state if the employer hasn’t gone into administration or receivership. The employer has no statutory responsibility under this CVA arrangement to look after its former employees. If it was declared in administration or receivership then any accountant appointed to manage the company’s affairs has a responsibility to all creditors (including staff) rather than just picking and choosing who it looks after. As it stands the company can decide whether to pay us or not.
It is going to take a long long time for an operation with four 737s to earn enough profits to repay all of the debts racked up by eight 737s and five 747s with no bills being paid. This is more than ever before because I can’t see European being able to get new business to keep the smaller 737 fleet busy. If you were a tour operator would you pay money to European for a flight that you didn’t know if it would be able to operate?
I think we’re in for a long haul here if you’ll pardon the pun. Long hauls are exactly what got us into this position in the first place. For those who are left then it’s all very well but I have to ask whether the majority would not be better off if the airline went into formal administration. It could still continue to trade in administration and protect the jobs of those who are left if there is indeed hope of it trading profitably. If there is no hope then they may as well give up now. Administration would also mean that the situation for the majority who have been laid off would be far more straightforward to deal with.
Does anyone know if there is any truth to the rumour that the CVA arrangement has been dreamt up to allow the AOC to be transferred to a newly-formed company with no debts or trading history? If so then this has to rank as one of the most callous acts yet by PGS - a man who has repeatedly taken every penny out of this company to fund his Formula 1 hobby. Is he planning to put any of that money back again….I don’t think so. By shifting everything into European Mk2 then PGS would be able to own a new company with no debts and continue to lease the aircraft that he owns back to that company.
We didn’t establish what got European into this mess in the first place. I read various peoples accounts with interest. The discussion earlier covered Excel’s role in this unhappy situation at European. In spite of Aliens62’s answers back on page 12 of this thread many questions about this too remain unanswered and I have been doing some more research on this. More questions -
Q1) A certain airline’s ramp vehicle was seen around the B747 impounded at LGW on 11 March. Photocopies of the BAA notice impounding the aircraft were doing the rounds of the airport later that day. Where did these come from?
Q2) Aliens62 you state that Excel had a contract with European to fly three B733 lines of flying. “Excel is still seeking to cover one third of this flying” Does this mean that the other two aircrafts work are not real and never were? I see no replacement aircraft has appeared at NCL as an Excel B738 and Islandsflug B734 are still expected as they always were but no replacement for the EAAC B733. I hear what you say about European not honouring contracts it had signed but could Excel have honoured those contracts if EAAC still been in a position to do so.
Q3) When Excel Aviation is the self-styled major charter seat broker in the UK why does it need the services of an intermediary, broker Meridian Aviation (run - as I understand - by a former member of the Excel/Sabre team and the brother-in-law of Excel’s Chief Executive), to buy capacity on its behalf from EAAC? It either means that you cannot achieve the same deals on aircraft that a much smaller operation can – and that is a sad reflection on its negotiating power - or that there is another reason which we cannot see.
Q4) What happened to the EAAC B742 programme of short-haul flights from LGW & MAN that Meridian firmed up apparently on behalf of Excel with Stephen Woodland at EAAC. It does raise the question why Woodland did not stop to consider the old adage about all that glitters not being gold before bringing in two more B742s in anticipation of extra work. From what I can see from my lowly position EAAC has been responsible for its own downfall by placing too much store in a few particular contracts and not developing a wider range of charterers but you would have to be rather thick on the basis of the above not to suspect that some organisations haven’t given it a hefty shove to help it over the edge of the cliff.
That’s it for now. I’m sure there will be more questions as time goes by.