Will Swissair be able to meet its commitment towards Air Lib? The partial bankruptcy of the Swiss company, which was decided on Monday, raises the question of the 40 million euros to pay.
Will Air Lib (former AOM-Air Liberté) be the victim of Swissair's mistakes once more? The French company, which tries to start again after being dropped in spring by its shareholder Swissair, may not get the overall amount that the Swiss company promised to pay (200 million euros). However, a new problem arose: the partial liquidation of Swissair decided yesterday, Monday.
Thus, the plan announced by Mario Corti is to file a petition in bankruptcy of the financially strangled airline company and to transfer some of the airline activities under the responsibility of Crossair, its subsidiary, bought out by the banks UBS and Crédit Suisse. Crossair should then take in charge two third of Swissair's airline activities before October 28th 2001. This gives an idea of the emergency and Swissair is not even sure to be able to pay the salaries of October.
If Swissair has already paid a part of the amount due to Air Lib (160 million euros), the overall amount is now becoming very unsure (40 million euros). It will weaken even more Air Lib, which couldn't expect to face such a crisis of the airline transport. It is an essential company for Nice Côte d'Azur airport, where it deals with fifteen daily flights between Nice and Paris-Orly.
Sabena is another airline company operating in Nice, which may be very affected by the liquidation of Swissair. Indeed, the Swiss group promised Sabena to pay them 220 million euros in order to achieve its big dreams. Sabena is thus also on the brink of the abyss.