The sale to the employee group was approved last night after they proved that they have the finance to complete the deal, apart from the debentures. They have until Friday to pay a deposit of U$75m when they can formally take control of operations. If they don't pay by Friday the auction will be considered null and void.
As has happened every day recently Varig has cancelled flights again today, 14 so far including Rio-London.
Several other companies looked at the files and decided not to place a bid. They include TAP, TAM, Oceanair and GOL. They obviously didn't like what they saw very much and chose not to place a bid.
One factor may have been that Varig don't own the routes or slots, they are distributed by the government to the various carriers. So, TAM stands to gain extra routes and slots in the event of Varig going under, or simply being unable to service the routes (ie to the USA, fear of losing the aircraft).
This novela has a long way to go yet, one of the main reasons behind Varigs problems was the overstaffing, and who has just bought the company?
Last edited by alemaobaiano; 20th June 2006 at 13:52.