Air Australia had debts of up to A$90 million ($97.3 million) when it suspended all services on 16 February.

In fact, its bank accounts contained less than A$200,000 on the night it appointed administrators from KordaMentha to the company, said a spokesman.

An hour-long meeting was held this morning with about 100 creditors, most of whom were employees of the Brisbane-based airline.

The spokesman could not give Flightglobal Pro an estimate on the amount likely to be generated by a sale of the airline's assets, but said that the figure "will not be enough to cover the total shortfall", considering all its aircraft were leased.

"There's some interests with regards to its engineering arm, [Strategic Engineering Australia] which has a hangar and also some spare parts. But how much it's likely to bring, is hard to say," he added.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) was revealed as the largest creditor and is owed "at least" A$20 million.

Other creditors include aircraft lessors, and companies that provided spare parts, maintenance, and media services. Flightglobal's Acend Online database lists the airline's fleet as being provided by ILFC, AWAS and Macquarie AirFinance.

Employees are also owed A$8 million in unpaid wages, part of which however, would be covered by a government scheme.

"The prognosis for selling the airline is very poor," said the spokesman, adding that it is "quite possible" for Air Australia to go into liquidation, depending on how the creditors vote.

A second meeting with creditors has been set on 23 March.

The carrier was launched in 2009 as Strategic Airlines and took over troubled Australian charter operator OzJet in the same year.

It obtained both an Australian air operator's certificate and a French one, later switched to a Luxembourg AOC,  for European services as Strategic Airlines Luxembourg.

Air Australia operated a fleet of leased Airbus A330s and Airbus A320s.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news