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Isle of Man government vents its spleen over Euromanx collapse

People get very possessive about their local airlines. They love them for helping connect them with the big wide world and often give them money.

So when they fall apart, or disappear without even a sorry, they get very cross.

Witness then the fury of the Isle of Man government over the collapse of its local carrier Euromanx.

logo_euromanx.gifIt has publically laid out its views about the management of Euromanx and how it handled its affairs in the work up to its eventual closure on the 9th of May.

This open letter on the Isle of Man government's website sets out its position. It's pretty long, but worth scanning, and here are some of the juiciest bits.

Now you might wonder what all the fuss is about over a carrier with just a couple of Bombardier Dash 8 turboprops. But it is a big deal for a small island like the Isle of Man (which sits in the Irish Sea in between England and Ireland).

euromanxdash8_2.jpg

And the sums of money involved are not petty. The airline owed some £850,000 to the government in debts that included airport fees, Air Passenger Duty (APD), Income Tax Instalments and National Insurance payments.

It seems the government was extremely patient with the airline's management as it negotiated a potential buy-out (Aer Arran and then flybe), which didn't work out,

Here's the final sequence of events, as stated by Chief Minister Tony Brown:

"At 6.23 am on Friday the 9th May EuroManx flew their last Dash 8 aircraft off the Island to the maintenance base located off Island, but did not inform the Airport until 2 minutes after the take-off, that being at 6.25 am on Friday 9th May, that EuroManx had ceased operations.

"There is no doubt that this was a deliberate act by the owners of EuroManx so as to ensure that the Airport Authority could not arrest the EuroManx aircraft as security against any outstanding debt."

"It is indeed to say the least, most unfortunate that Quest - the owners of EuroManx - did not even have the courtesy to advise the Government of their intention to cease trading other than in the way they did, especially considering the considerable amount of support and effort put in by Government and its officers in an endeavour to assist Quest in securing the future of EuroManx an airline which we had become fond of and which had served the Island well."

 

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