angels
6th Feb 2003, 08:42
The following has just run on Reuters.
Air Lib grounded as rescue talks fail
PARIS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Negotiations to save France's second biggest airline Air Lib failed overnight, leaving passengers stranded, landing slots empty and its planes grounded indefinitely, the government said on Thursday.
A statement from the French travel ministry said talks between it, the airline's shareholders and Dutch financial group IMCA, hailed as a white knight, had collapsed in the early hours.
"The government... deplores the fact that the negotiations could not be concluded despite all the efforts that it has made for months and that were pursued until late in the night," it said.
The fate of the airline, which employs 3,000 people, now depends on decisions to be made by its directors and a French commercial court, the ministry said.
The travel ministry has asked France's aviation authorities to seek alternative flights for stranded Air Lib passengers around the world.
France's leading carrier Air France said it and Corsair had been asked by the government to add flights for would-be Air Lib passengers. Air France said it would add flights to the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion and that Corsair would add flights to the French West Indies.
Air Lib, made up of bankrupt former French airlines AOM/Air Liberte, flies to the French Antilles, Algeria, Cuba, and a number of destinations in Europe and France.
Its operating licence, already extended to give last-ditch rescue talks a chance, expired on Wednesday, and its planes no longer have the right to fly.
It said IMCA had declined to sign a protocol that would have saved the airline from bankruptcy, relaunched its business and gradually repaid its public debts. Air Lib owes the state about 100 million euros ($108.6 million).
The stumbling block is believed to be a request by IMCA to purchase Airbus planes at favourable terms to improve Air Lib's fleet -- Air Lib wanted to purchase 29 A319 planes at the same price accorded to British cut-price operator EasyJet.
"This agreement does not depend on the government," Transport Minister Gilles de Robien warned several hours before the talks collapsed.
"IMCA wants planes at a more competitive price... That is a negotiation between a private company and a private purchaser. In such a negotiation, the state will not intervene with Airbus," he told RMC-Info radio.
Agreement seemed to have been reached on the first two issues -- reimbursing its debt and negotiations with unions to obtain productivity gains, de Robien said.
The ministry said it had given every chance to the talks and to efforts to save jobs and vowed to meet employee representatives as soon as possible.
Air Lib grounded as rescue talks fail
PARIS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Negotiations to save France's second biggest airline Air Lib failed overnight, leaving passengers stranded, landing slots empty and its planes grounded indefinitely, the government said on Thursday.
A statement from the French travel ministry said talks between it, the airline's shareholders and Dutch financial group IMCA, hailed as a white knight, had collapsed in the early hours.
"The government... deplores the fact that the negotiations could not be concluded despite all the efforts that it has made for months and that were pursued until late in the night," it said.
The fate of the airline, which employs 3,000 people, now depends on decisions to be made by its directors and a French commercial court, the ministry said.
The travel ministry has asked France's aviation authorities to seek alternative flights for stranded Air Lib passengers around the world.
France's leading carrier Air France said it and Corsair had been asked by the government to add flights for would-be Air Lib passengers. Air France said it would add flights to the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion and that Corsair would add flights to the French West Indies.
Air Lib, made up of bankrupt former French airlines AOM/Air Liberte, flies to the French Antilles, Algeria, Cuba, and a number of destinations in Europe and France.
Its operating licence, already extended to give last-ditch rescue talks a chance, expired on Wednesday, and its planes no longer have the right to fly.
It said IMCA had declined to sign a protocol that would have saved the airline from bankruptcy, relaunched its business and gradually repaid its public debts. Air Lib owes the state about 100 million euros ($108.6 million).
The stumbling block is believed to be a request by IMCA to purchase Airbus planes at favourable terms to improve Air Lib's fleet -- Air Lib wanted to purchase 29 A319 planes at the same price accorded to British cut-price operator EasyJet.
"This agreement does not depend on the government," Transport Minister Gilles de Robien warned several hours before the talks collapsed.
"IMCA wants planes at a more competitive price... That is a negotiation between a private company and a private purchaser. In such a negotiation, the state will not intervene with Airbus," he told RMC-Info radio.
Agreement seemed to have been reached on the first two issues -- reimbursing its debt and negotiations with unions to obtain productivity gains, de Robien said.
The ministry said it had given every chance to the talks and to efforts to save jobs and vowed to meet employee representatives as soon as possible.