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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0021.PDF
BUSINESS SATELLITE NAVIGATION JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON ESA to hold talks in bid to break Galileo deadlock Agency aims for funding compromise after investment talks collapsed in late 2002 The European Space Agency (ESA) is to hold an emergency council meeting this week in an attempt to break the deadlock over funding for the Galileo satellite navigation system. Talks broke down late last month after Germany and Spain rejected the latest compromise deal on investment and workshare pro posed by ESA's director general Antonio Rodota. Officially, ESA is still in 2002. The agency has not formally closed last year's final session, which merely "ran out of time" in December and is set to be com pleted in an extraordinary general meeting of the 15 member states' transport ministers, to be held this week in Paris. Volker Liebig, direc tor of space programmes at Germany's aerospace research cen tre, the DLR, says Germany will now agree to the compromise on a governmental level, but that find ing an agreement between German and Italian industrial partners could still prove difficult. If ESA cannot reach an agree ment before the end of the month, the EC is likely to continue with the first phase alone - its half share of the first year's budget was cleared last year and has now been informally frozen. This could give ESA until July to resolve its dif ferences over the €1.1 billion ($1.14 billion) first phase (Flight International, 3-9 December 2002). Under Rodota's latest compro mise proposal, Germany was to invest 17.5% of ESA's €550 million share of the project, for an equal portion of contracts. Germany turned the deal down, arguing that under ESA rules it should lead the project on account of its larger economy. Liebig says Germany had ini tially wanted to highlight the fact that it contributes 25% of the EC's side of the funding, against around 13% put in by Italy and around 17% each for France and the UK. ESA says that this weighting rule only applies to scientific projects, not "application" programmes, and that Germany's refusal to accept the compromise leaves it "back at square one". Rodota warns that the "entire space industry in Europe will badly suffer from this break in the negotiations". RESTRUCTURING CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / PARIS Air Lib hopes to write off its debts The fate of French private airline Air Lib will be sealed this week when the French government will decide whether to write off the troubled carrier's debts. Last week the French secretary of state for transport, Dominique Buss- ereau, received the troubled airline's latest restructuring plan and said he would "give a definitive reply as quickly as possible". Air Lib has undergone several ownership changes and reorganisa tions since acquisition by British 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Oct 1996 Air Liberte rescued from bankruptcy by British Airways taking majority stake Mar 1998 Air Liberte merges with TAT European Airlines Feb 1999 Swissair buys stake in French rival AOM May 2000 Air Liberte taken over by Taitbout Antibes holding company Jan 2001 Air Liberte and AOM merge Jun 2001 Air Liberte-AOM enters bankruptcy Sep 2001 Rebranded as Air Lib under HOLCO consortium Swissair gives up its stake Oct 2001 Swissair goes bankrupt owing Air Lib Fr400m ($55m) Mar 2002 Establishes low-cost Air Lib Express Nov 2002 Granted loan extension by French government Dec 2002 First restructuring plan submitted and rejected Jan 2003 Second restructuring plan submitted m*a I^UT Airways in 1996 (see chart). It sub mitted the new plan just hours before the 9 January deadline to try to win government concessions to allow it to continue operations. However, prospects do not look good, as Bussereau complained that the plan did not appear to include a significant investment from poten tial Dutch backer IMCA. This has been a problem before: the French government refuses to write off a €30 million ($31.2 million) bridging loan unless IMCA gives a firm com mitment to invest. Bussereau says the government's aim "has been to ensure this company survives, but not under any conditions". Air Lib says the new plan involves IMCA taking a 50% stake and buying several Airbus aircraft. It will require the French government to write off a €110 million debt. Erik de Vlieger, president of IMCA, says he has contacted Airbus about buy ing 29 A320s to add to Air Lib's A340s, Boeing MD-82s and MD-83s, and McDonnell Douglas DC-lOs. EXPANSION Aerolineas to launch subsidiaries Aerolineas Argentinas will spend $30 million on launching four subsidiaries in neighbouring countries from September, chief executive Antonio Mata says. The carriers will operate from Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, the first of which will start operations with $7.5 million fund ing operating two Boeing 737- 300s transferred from Aerolineas and one 747-300 that the airline is acquiring. The new carriers are part of the airline's recovery plan, unveiled in December last year after 14 months in administration. Mata confirms that Aerolineas will open routes from Buenos Aires to Beijing and Tokyo, and that 2003 will see an administra tive and operational merger between the carrier and its dom estic subsidiary Austral. He expects the merger will eliminate duplicated administrative and sup port costs, adding "the Austral name will be employed in other business efforts", such as a new low-cost carrier Mata forecasts revenues of $1.18 billion and $35-48 million net profits in 2003, compared with an estimated $1.1 billion revenue and zero profit in 2002. He also predicts traffic will grow 31 % in 2003 to 5.6 million passengers. SEE GENERAL AVIATION P21 EOPLE • James May is to succeed Carol Hallett next month as presi dent of the US airline lobby group, the Air Transport Association. May was formerly executive vice- president of the National Association of Broadcasters. • British Airways chief executive Rod Eddington will take over from Leo van Wijk of KLM as chairman of the Association of European Airlines. • Ryanair has promoted Michael Cawley, formerly chief financial officer; to chief operating officer He is replaced by Howard Millar, formerly director of finance. www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 14-20 JANUARY 2003 19
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