RE: VLM
VLM Airlines into receivership, asks protection from creditors for six months - Luchtzak Aviation
The Antwerp airline said today it had filed an application to the commercial court in Antwerp. The company, which is running out of cash, wants to ask for protection from creditors during six months. ....
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VLM Airlines did not have much choice because its main bank KBC had blocked the accounts on Wednesday. In recent weeks the company got several times the visit of a bailiff, sent by suppliers whose bills were not paid any longer. VLM in recent months had to cancel flights repeatedly for lack of pilots.....
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It looked very bad on Monday this week when Antwerp Airport set the airline in default for an unpaid and overdue invoice of 112,000 euros from the month of March. “They promised me to pay last Wednesday, but that did not happen,” said Marcel Buelens, CEO of Antwerp and Ostend Airport, the two Flemish regional airports. At the end of last year VLM was already late with a bill that was nearly ten times higher. Since then VLM received invoices every fortnight instead of every month.
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VLM would now also owe about three million euros to KBC Bank, in addition to the three million which the company must pay to several vendors including taxi companies and airports such as Antwerp. At the end sold of last year VLM sold and leased back four Fokker 50s in order to pay the bill of Antwerp airport.
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Source: VRT, De Tijd, Belga