The future of the SAirGroup’s troubled French regional airline subsidiaries hung in the balance as the Swiss airline conglomerate awaited a decision from the commercial court responsible for examining offers for Air Liberté/AOM. If French authorities decline to accept any of the offers to fully or partially take over the operation, the company will face liquidation, thus ending SAirGroup’s ambition to form a second powerful French regional airline to rival Air France. Meanwhile, an offer to take over Air Littoral, by its former boss Marc Dufour, has been accepted.
AOM and Air Liberté are majority owned by France’s Marine-Wendel, which holds a 50.5-percent share, while SAirGroup’s subsidiary Swissair holds 49.5 percent. The Zurich, Switzerland-based group is barred by European Union (EU) rules from holding a majority stake in undertakings based in one of the 15 EU member countries because Switzerland is not an EU member. The financial problems of the SAirGroup’s three French regional airlines have led to huge losses. SAirGroup has been losing SFr80 million ($47.2 million) a month on its French operations, and the French airlines have accumulated net losses of FFr3 billion ($400 million).
