Aigle Azur: 14 takeover offers, 13,000 passengers still stranded

At least fourteen offers to take over Aigle Azur were submitted before the deadline on September 9, 2019. As expected, one of them was from Air France. Meanwhile, 13,000 passengers of the company are still stranded.

Among the fourteen offers that were presented, Martin Surzur, President of Aigle Azur SNPL union, said there were two “main” proposals. One of them is most probably Air France, which according to a union source quoted by Franceinfo, offered to inject €15 million into the company and hire up to 70% of the French employees of Aigle Azur, which would represent about 800 employees out of 1,150. Dubreuil group, the parent company of the airlines French Bee and Air Caraibes, also offered €15 million, but only plan to keep 106 employees. The commercial court should decide on an offer in the coming week.

Meanwhile, passengers of Aigle Azur are still struggling to find a way home. “Of the 19,000 passengers who found themselves in difficulty, there are still 13,000," said the new French Secretary of State for transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari on BFM TV, before detailing "in the 13,000, there are 11,000 in Algeria; 500 to 600 in Mali, Lebanon, Moscow, and other smaller volumes including in Senegal".

Air France has already chartered four flights, two per day, on September 7 and 8, 2019, and will continue to regularly do so. “We expect the situation to go back to normal in the next three weeks,” said Djebarri.