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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 3748.PDF
BUSINESS BELGIAN AIRLINES HERMAN DE WULF / BRUSSELS Ex-DAT boss to plug Belgian gap Van Gaever planning new carrier - VG Airlines - to serve long haul routes from Brussels after Sabena demise Freddy Van Gaever, the former boss of Belgian regionals Delta Air Transport (DAT) and VLM, has made a bid to fill the void left by Sabena's bankruptcy. The Belgian businessman has been in talks with Sabena receivers and is negotiating with two prospective investors in the new DAT, bank tycoons Viscount Etienne Davignon and Count Maurice Lippens, over an invest ment of Bfr500 million ($11 mil lion) in a new airline. Van Gaever has already applied for an air operator certificate (AOC) from Belgium's civil aviation administration. However, to speed up the launch date, he has offered to buy two Airbus 340 aircraft from Sabena's receivers in exchange for a transfer of the Sabena AOC to his new VG Airlines. Van Gaever says he wants to begin long-haul services from Brussels to Los Angeles and San Francisco on 22 April and may serve New York and Boston if Sabena's successor DAT Plus backs off from flying these routes. He has taken options on two ex- Sabena Airbus A330s for this eventuality. "I have no intention to do what others do," Van Gaever says. "I'll leave European services to Virgin Express and Delta Air Transport. I want to provide long-haul service to the USA. Everything is in place to start operations: aircraft, expertise, competent staff and Sabena Technics for maintenance. All I need is an AOC." If VG Airlines takes off, the carrier will exclusively hire former Sabena employees. Virgin Express and DAT have meanwhile begun co-operating, with codeshare agreements to an array of European destinations, including London Heathrow. This is seen as a preliminary move to a merger after 9 December - the date when DAT, operating under receivership as part of the Sabena Group, will be put up for sale. DAT has been using a Bfr 5 bil lion bridging credit provided origi nally by the Belgian Government to Sabena and transferred to DAT when Sabena was declared bank rupt on 6 November. The airline resumed operating a limited network of 35 destinations in Europe, but has been suffering from an average load factor as low as 10% as a result of confu sion over where to buy tickets and at what price. DAT hopes a recent low fare promotional drive will increase load factors although seat occupancy has already increased to around 50%, accord ing to some reports. In the meantime, Sabena Tech nics has announced that it is making 30% of its workforce re dundant as part of a restructuring plan to cope with the loss of busi ness from Sabena. Although the company had been making efforts to grow third party work, the Belgian airline still represented 37% of Sabena Tech nics' turnover when the airline went bust. The company says it is continu ing to identify potential buyers and is in advanced discussions with a number of investors. It expects to reach an agreement "in principle" by the end of the year. SWISSAIR BANKRUPTCY South Africa buys back shares The South African cabinet has decided to buy back the 20% stake in South African Airways (SAA) currently held by the troubled flag carrier Swissair. The deal follows the collapse of the Swiss airline and the merger of part of its operations into sister company Crossair. The original deal selling the SAA holding gave parent Transnet the first refusal to reacquire the Swissair stake at 85% of the current "fair" value of the shares. Analysts say the price is likely to be between R650 million ($68m) and R800 million, roughly half of the R1.4 billion Swissair paid for it in 1999. The Transnet board has opted not to immediately resell the shares to a third party or on the open market. A decision on timing for the further privatisation of SAA will be taken after the buyback is concluded in the next couple of weeks. The share sale is the latest in a string of sell-offs undertaken by Swissair. Earlier this month it sold its 49.9% sale in German charter air line LTU to a German bank for €1 (89p) and has severed its ties with Sabena of Belgium, and AOM, Air Liberte and Air Littoral in France. LOSSES NICHOLAS I0NIDES / SINGAPORE Japanese majors rejig following poor results Japan's two biggest airlines Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) are forecasting com bined net losses for the year ending March of more than ¥50 billion ($405 million) as a slowing domes tic economy and the impact of the US terrorist attacks take their toll. Announcing sharp falls in first- half profits, All Nippon Airways said that it expects a full-year net loss of ¥11 billion. JAL, in also announcing sharp first-half profit- falls, forecast a net loss of ¥40 bil lion. JAL had previously been forecasting a ¥25 billion profit. The two carriers have responded to the downturn by unveiling major route cuts. JAL and ANA have already slashed many routes and reduced other long-haul operations, representing available capacity cuts of between 10% and 15%. They are also stepping up internal restructuring efforts. ANA, which makes most of its money from still-healthy domestic operations, says it will reduce work force numbers by 1,100 to 12,700 by March 2003 - partly by discon tinuing a recruitment plan. It will also make other internal cuts in a bid to save ¥30 billion. ANA saw consolidated net profit fall 47% in the first half ended 30 September, while operating profit fell 28%. JAL reported a 61% drop in net profit for its first half and a 45% drop in operating profit. Both expect the global economic slowdown to have an impact on domestic operations in the second half. Like other Asian carriers, the two have been suffering from a sharp drop in cargo revenue, mostly because of a plunge in IT-related exports to the USA. JAL recently agreed to merge with number-three carrier Japan Air System, in a move which will give them a combined domestic market share of 48%, roughly equal to that of ANA (Flight International, 20-26 November). 20 27 NOVEMBER - 3 DECEMBER 2001 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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