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Was told by ramp personel in Stockholm yesterday that Sterling crew is paying fuel cash? Any truth in this (asking because friends have bought tickets with them

oceancrosser

Unfortunately bad news may be looming Stoppet salget av Sterling-billetter - Aftenposten Reise

Sterlings "owner" Northern Travel Holding, "owned" or "owed" by the Icelandic Fons is widely believed to be on the brink of collapse. It was very much involved in several Icelandic companies which have either folded or are in trouble, such as Glitnir Bank and Stodir/FL Group.

NTH also owns Iceland Express, part of Astraeus etc. Sincere hopes for Sterling staff that a saviour comes along. I have no special hopes for NTH/Fons. Those people have dug their own grave.

Anonymus6

Lets hope they can make it through the winter and once summer comes they have bigger chance to survive.

paperdragon

Was told by ramp personel in Stockholm yesterday that Sterling crew is paying fuel cash?

-That is bullocks my friends

Close to bankrupcy or not? I dont know, but Iīll guess that at least one other scandinavian operator will stumble and fall ahead of sterling

boeing737-700

Paperdragon,

Interesting conclusion, care to elaborate, or are you also just throwing ideas around for our consideration.

(I think that maybe, perhaps at least one other European airline will stumble and fall ahead of Sterling......) in reality I donīt have a clue but I wonīt let that get in the way of a rumour. "Not paperdragons quote but mine."

oceancrosser

Well, a potential sale is being discussed. epn.dk - Kriseramt Sterling tæt på salg

Its in Danish, from Jyllands-Posten. I hope for the sake of Sterling and its employees that something comes out of it.

Jr. Ewing

So who's the potential buyer? SAS, Finnair and Norwegian all denied today that they're involved....

vikingdk

The only potential buyer for Sterling would be DY. Not because the airline in itself is worth anything, but simply because DYīs management are ****ting themselves with the very thought of a certain yellow/blue army invading CPH Swift from 2009, and with Sterling gone within the next week(and it WILL happen), CPH will be up for grasp....

Dovregubben

NAS is not interested. CPH is a too small market and will shrimp further.

Sterling has nothing to sell. Sad but true.

ReallyAnnoyed

Dovregubben, shrimp???

Crossunder

There's, um, shrimp kebabs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp and lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... That's, that's about it.

"Sterling shrimp" didn't sell, which is why they might be out of business soon...

boeing737-700

I canīt see who would be interested in buying Sterling, what do they have to sell, the only thing they excell at is bad management.

They claim to be in talks with several interested parties, but I would think that this is just a statement to attract interest.

It may just be a lie, I guess that in big business it is called spin.

Interesting to note that less than 2 week ago they denied that they were up for sale, then about a week ago they were interested in bringing in an investor and now they are actually for sale, things happen quickly in aviation.

Again, what do they have to sell????

All the aircraft are leased, headquater is leased, maintenance is subcontracted, any airline can start flying on the same routes if they want to, they have a bunch of pilots who are still split in two groups because of seniority problems, they have issues with their unions etc, etc...

They have an owner who claims to have 6 billion kroner at his disposal, and only a few months ago he said that he would be behind Sterling all the way, now it seems that he is behind them allright, he is just running in the other direction.

It is funny to see how they react when they get bad press, such as now when they can not understand that travel agents are keeping an eye on them, they seem to imply that this is what causes them all the trouble.

They have been dumping prices on many routes for a long time, on some they have been giving away free tickets, all you had to pay was the airport taxes, and then they cry "price dumping" when SAS increases capacity on routes to and from Bergen, which forces Sterling to pull out of Bergen.

Waiting to see who will be foolish enough to buy into this.

Off to have a shrimp cocktail....!!!!!!

Dissident

Crossunder: Absolutely hilarious! Haven't laughed this much in a long time! Cheers!

As far as Sterling goes: We've heard this b4... But Palmi's entry raised a few eyebrows and especially since he, as always, forgot to take his "humble-pill-of-the-day" and once again Sterling would rise from the ashes and become a leader, strong and proud, with endless supply of benjamins 'n good spirits... oooooops... I suppose the combination of negative factors might acutally put the kill on the dane this time. Potential buyers? SAS? Never! Ryanair? Not their thing. EZ? Hmmm... probably not but not completely out of character. NAS? Can they afford it? Guess it depends on the tag: 1billion DK... might start to look interesting. I suspect that they will be sold to an icelandic investor, or maybe GSS, Riverdon, Astraeus or some other sneaky hobbits from the dark side of the mountains. Time will tell...

Good luck to all the cranky danes!

standbyils

Dissident

Astraeus and Sterling are owned by the same company - NTH; travel/leisure division of FONS (Icelandic Investment Group).

I would imagine that FONS is looking for a co-investor to spread the risk, as them 'getting out' isn't an option if the rumour that large amounts of Sterling debt is secured/guarenteed by FONS is to be believed. If true, Sterling falling would mean a severe impact on their investors, aside from the Icelandic financial crisis.

Still, what do I know?

I doubt it will vanish quite as quickly as some here are making out, although it is fair to say that a Ryanair aircraft parked alonside a Sterling aircraft would probably be the final nail.

Dissident

OK, I stand corrected! Agree that it is highly unpropable that they will vanish quickly! They've been around for some time, good brand and well-known. Hope the investors are serious!

thepeacock

News of Sterling for sale (In English)

Good Luck to all involved. Whatever Happens.

My "guess" is for a tie up with SkyEurope via investment from York Capital.

. . . or for something more exotic, a merger with an Australian LCC, just so they can share fleet and have A/C in the right place for each hemispheres summertime.

thepeacock

Aircraft leased - Not important if the lease is at good price, also leasing now proivides more opportunity to scale down in credit crisis or to acquire new A/C at bargain prices as other airlines fail.

HQ leased - again not important if rent is low, also makes it more attractive to another airline to buy as they can shift the HQ to Luton or wherever

Maintenance subcontracted - again makes sense, business wise due to flexibility and also for a buyer if they already have the facilities and can get better utilisation in their new enlarged business.

Unions - no comment

boeing737-700

The Peacock,

I agree totally, perhaps I didn`t make my point clear enough.

There is nothing to buy, this would reflect on the saleprice.

The only thing they have for sale is the brand and crew, and believe me, their brand isn`t all that popular in Denmark, every other month Sterling has a representative on national TV trying to explain why they have such lousy costumer service etc.

Less than six month ago Sterling was valued at O "ZERO" danish kroner, this was before the global financial crisis.

I wonder just how much it is worth today????

Best regards,

dusk2dawn

I like the post about cheap lease cost. Last time I flew with Sterling the little metal plate stating the owner still said Maersk. Anyway, was that an Islandic zero?

racasan

Curried Shrimp