Air France looks for investors for CityJet

[RoMax]

ASL also tried to take control of the TNT airlines.

Not exactly. After the take-over bid of UPS on TNT, ASL was contacted by TNT as a potential suitor for the airline because UPS would have been compelled to sell it.

They had a signed deal I believe, but it would only take effect if the TNT take-over would go through. But as the EU refused the deal, the contract with ASL Aviation was worthless.

[sn26567]

ch-aviation provides some more details about the bidders and the airline:

ASL controls cargo operator Air Contractors (AG, Dublin International (DUB)), French cargo and charter airline Europe Airpost (5O, Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)) and South African cargo and ACMI specialist Safair (FA, Johannesburg Oliver Reginald Tambo International (JNB)).

Intro Aviation owns a majority stake in Austrian regional carrier InterSky (3L, Friedrichshafen Bodensee (FDH)) and is also said to be one of the bidders for a stake in Adria Airways (JP, Ljubljana Joze Pucnik (LJU)).

Cityjet CEO Christine Ourmières said "she is impressed with the calibre" of bidders who have so far submitted proposals, all of whom have grand long-term plans for the company. At present, CityJet operates an ageing fleet of nineteen ARJ-85s, twelve Fokker 50s wet-leased from VLM (VG, Antwerp Deurne (ANR)) and two Do328-100s wet-leased from Suckling Airways (CB, Cambridge (CBG)) on routes on behalf of Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and on an own network from London City (LCY), though Ms Ourmières has pointed out that any future fleet and route network renewal plans would depend entirely on the airline's new owner.

Air France-KLM is expected to issue an announcement on the future home of Cityjet this summer.

[Boeing767copilot]

German Intro Aviation is selected for a possible take over. For how long?

[sn26567]

German Intro Aviation is selected for a possible take over. For how long?

Intro Aviation are only the "selected" bidder, but before accepting to take over CityJet, they will have a thorough examination of the books: they might discover some skeletons in the cupboard....

[sn26567]

Cityjet to terminate Air France franchise agreement from October

Cityjet (WX, Dublin Int'l) will cancel its franchise agreement from a final date in October 2013 yet to be established and will then operate all of its flights currently operated under Air France flight numbers on a franchise basis under its own commercial responsibility using its WX code. This is one of the steps required to make Cityjet available for a potential sale by Air France-KLM to a third party, expected to be Germany's Intro Aviation.

This will include flights from London City to Amsterdam, Antwerp, Avignon, Brest Guipavas, Brive-la-Gaillarde Vallée de la Dordogne, Deauville, Dresden, Dublin Int'l, Edinburgh, Florence Peretola, Luxembourg, Münster/Osnabrück, Nantes, Nuremberg, Paderborn/Lippstadt, Pau, Paris Orly, Rotterdam and Toulon as well as from Amsterdam to Brive and Perpignan and from Dublin to Brest.

The routes from Paris Orly to Nantes and from Paris CDG to Dublin, Edinburgh, Florence, Newcastle, Turin and Zagreb currently operated on a wet-lease basis for Air France are not affected, although it is widely expected they will be transferred to one of the HOP! subsidiaries.

Source: ch-aviation

[sn26567]

The negotiations between Air France and Intro Aviation on the sale of Cityjet have failed, according to a union source.

http://plus.lefigaro.fr/connexion

[sn26567]

Air France-KLM has resumed discussions with Intro Aviation about the sale of CityJet, and some sources claim that it is now a done deal!

In order to foster the deal, Air France-KLM would have offered to waive the debt of CityJet.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Was this instead of the 200 million for AZ !
A company with many debts itselfs buys another company with debts and waive them !
An exemple for a good economy IMO

CXB

[sn26567]

Air France-KLM has resumed discussions with Intro Aviation about the sale of CityJet, and some sources claim that it is now a done deal!

Intro Aviation places firm offer for Air France’s CityJet

After months of discussions, Germany’s Intro Aviation has put in a firm offer for Air France’s Irish regional airline CityJet. The deal is expected to close in early 2014.

CityJet was put up for sale in the summer of 2012. Germany’s Intro Group emerged as a likely buyer and was expected to conclude talks in July, but exclusive negotiations ended in September without a deal.

However, in a brief statement issued late Friday, Air France said: “On Dec. 19, 2013, Air France received a firm offer from Intro Aviation to purchase CityJet and its subsidiary VLM. This offer provides for ongoing commercial cooperation with Air France as part of a new industrial plan.”

The French carrier will now begin an employee consultation on the sale, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014. No financial details were given.

More from ATWonline

[sn26567]

In unrelated news, it has been learned that CityJet (in fact VLM) will stop the route London City - Luxembourg in April 2014, due to financial difficulties. Fifteen jobs will be lost.

CityJet will also stop LCY-Dundee.

[sn26567]

To "celebrate" the take-over of CityJet by Intro Aviation, the pilots will be on strike this 24 and 25 December. They claim that the take-over is a disguised bankruptcy left to Intro aviation to cure. They also say the the activity in Paris will be drastically reduced and that many jobs will be lost.

[sn26567]

An interesting article about Intro Aviation (which has a record of buying loss-making airlines, turning them around and re-selling them) and CityJet:

http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/c ... tro-145984

Some excerpts:

The Principal of Intro Group, German businessman Hans Rudolf Wöhrl, established and expanded the airline now known as Eurowings (formerly called Nürnberger FlugDienst), before selling to Lufthansa.

The Intro Group’s involvement in the airline sector also includes the acquisition of a loss-making German airline Deutsche BA (‘dba’) from British Airways in Jul-2003. Intro turned dba profitable in Nov-2004 before selling it to Air Berlin in 2006.

In addition, in 2006 Intro acquired the loss-making German long-haul carrier LTU, which it also restored to break even and sold to Air Berlin. Intro also set up an ACMI airline in Germany, which it transferred to the charter carrier Germania in 2011.

The Intro Group has a track record of restoring profits to carriers that have come from larger groups and also of selling them on to other groups. Presumably the Group sees potential for profitability here. With the acquisition of CityJet not yet complete, it may seem premature to start speculating over Intro’s exit plans already. Nevertheless, Intro has sold airlines quite quickly in the past and CityJet may be of interest to UK-based carriers, if it can fix its cost base and start to renew its ageing fleet.

Competition authorities would want to look closely at any deal between CityJet and British Airways, due to their relative positions at London City, but BA’s parent IAG could be interested at some point. CityJet’s regional business model could also make it attractive to Flybe and bmi regional. Just as Intro will be planning ahead, interested parties will also be assessing the possibilities.

[sn26567]

Hans Rudolf Wöhrl, CEO of Intro Aviation, said in an interview to be published Monday in Wirtschaftswoche that he intends to merge CityJet with Austrian regional airline InterSky, which also belongs to Intro Aviation, and make it a European regional carrier large enough to cover niche markets without being expelled from the market by large groups such as Lufthansa.

[sn26567]

Hans Rudolf Wöhrl, CEO of Intro Aviation, said in an interview to be published Monday in Wirtschaftswoche that he intends to merge CityJet with Austrian regional airline InterSky.

Intro Aviation will not merge Cityjet, InterSky into a new carrier

InterSky) will not be merged with Cityjet, Intro Aviation founder, Hans Rudolf Wöhrl, has said. Denying recent global press reports that his firm intended to merge both operations into a single European carrier, Mr Wöhrl told Schwäbische Zeitung that Intro would instead seek to leverage the three airlines' (VLM included) synergies.

"Of course we want to take advantage of their synergies, but a merger was never part of the equation. Such a proposal, from today's perspective, does not make any sense," he said. "This is due to their completely different programs as well as their differing ownership structures." Wöhrl went on to state that his previous quote in the German media pertaining to a proposed merger had been taken out of context and that he had been speaking in a speculative manner. "But that was all speculative," he said. "'Leveraging synergies' between Cityjet and Intersky doesn't necessarily imply "direct co-operation"; it could also come about in the form of "individual contracts", for example in the areas of IT and procurements."

Source: ch-aviation