The European Commission announced on Thursday that it agreed to aid from the French state of almost 137 million euros to the airline Air Austral reunionas, in particular so that it can restructure.
The Commission authorized “France’s plan to grant restructuring aid amounting to 119.3 million euros to make the airline Air Austral viable again” and “aid amounting to 17.5 million euros to compensate to this company for the damages suffered after the coronavirus pandemic”, he specified in a press release.
From the same source, “the plan makes it possible to guarantee the long-term viability of the company, thus avoiding its liquidation which would be particularly detrimental to the outermost and assisted region of Réunion”.
Limitation of the number of seats sold
The Commission, which is in charge of guaranteeing a level playing field for EU companies, considered that the French plan “allows the company to return to viability in the long term and does not affect trade between Member States only to a small extent” of the EU.
However, measures were imposed “with the aim of limiting distortions of competition”, including a “limitation on the number of seats offered by Air Austral”, as well as a “limitation on the number of airlines operated by the company”, according to the Press release.
Towards the end of the restructuring period, scheduled for March 2025, Air Austral is also prohibited from “investing in other companies”, and must open “commercial agreements to airlines that request it”.
848 employees
The separate aid of 17.5 million euros is “intended to compensate Air Austral for the damages it suffered between March 17 and June 30, 2020 as a direct consequence of the travel restrictions established to limit the spread of the coronavirus “.
The company, hard hit by the collapse of air connections and tourism in the midst of a pandemic from which it emerged heavily in debt, announced in September that its restructuring plan, which included an injection of fresh money of 55 million euros from investors meetings, had been presented to Brussels.
Air Austral, which employed 848 people at the end of 2021, is currently 99% owned by a semi-public company, Sematra, which groups in particular the Reunion region (73.5%), the Caisse des dépôts (13.6 %) and the department (11.4%).
Source: BFM TV
