An article in yesterday's
La Tribune (
http://www.latribune.fr) says that
La Poste (The French Post Office) is in exclusive negotiations with Air Contractors and its main shareholder, the CMB (
Compagnie Maritime Belge) with a view to a takeover. A previous article mentioned that ACL's offer was actually 7-8 million €
lower than Aigle Azur's. However, Air Contractors have been operating A300s on behalf of EAP for a while now (AJA-MRS-CDG) and is very much a known quantity to EAP's management.
Also, with Transavia France taking over most of Air France's charter/leisure business, EAP's management is aware that the PAX side of the business will inevitably wither.
EAP's workforce (and unions), on the other hand, seem to favour Aigle Azur's offer - probably more geared towards continuing the PAX side of business along with their current charter/leisure routes on A320/321s.
A last minute offer has just been made by the Avion Group of Iceland - a substantially higher offer than the other two. They bought CDG-based Star Airlines (now XL Airways France) a while ago but do not seem to have grown its business much since. Their offer might have come too late to be considered anyway.
This being France, however, I wouldn't hold my breath; this sort of decision takes much longer than, say, in the UK.
Cheers
