PRESS RELEASE
AV8 FLIES ON
AV8air has pledged to continue operating its 767 aircraft having scaled down its initial plans whilst negotiations with potential investors continue.
Parent company HCCT (Holidays) Ltd. is in discussions with a third party which has expressed interest in a joint investment in AV8. Negotiations have advanced to the due diligence stage.
Whilst those negotiations continue AV8 has dropped plans to fly its 757 this summer and is in discussions with another airline which is interested in taking it on for the season. The 767 will continue to fly in AV8 colours this summer handling charter services for HCCT's brands to South Africa, the Canary Islands, Greece and mainland Spain. For the time being that aircraft will remain registered on Icelandair's Air Operator's Certificate and use the Scandinavian airline's flight deck crew and AV8 cabin staff.
HCCT also confirmed it had substantial cash reserves to ensure it can meet AV8's ongoing financial commitments.
As a result of changes to the operation it has unfortunately been necessary to make 23 AV8air staff redundant.
Expressing regret at the need for redundancies HCCT's chief executive Brian Murfin said: "The delay in securing external investment to support funds committed by HCCT has resulted in us having to scale down our initial plans and, unfortunately, forced us to makeredundancies. But these are prudent measures to ensure we can best protect the 47 remaining AV8 employees, the interests of our tour operating businesses and the longer term viability of the airline."
ENDS
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