Other let-downs for the second French air group : the departure of Paul Reutlinger, a talented man for communication and the renouncement for the renewal of the fleet.
Another bad news for the employees of AOM, Air Liberté and Air Littoral : Paul Reutlinger who had the mission to build up the second French air group under the control of SAirGroup is leaving. About ten days ago, a turning point was taken with the eviction of Philippe Bruggisser, the CEO of SAirGroup, a holding of Swissair and the air strategy of the group was thrown back into question (see article 'Nice Airport : threat on the second French air pole', 'Menaces sur le second pôle aérien français').
This time, it was the CEO of the French subsidiaries who decided on the last week-end to leave his position at the end of the month, without explanations. This departure is even worse since Paul Reutlinger proved to be a talented man for communication and he had succeeded to develop a plan to merge the three companies which saved jobs. This plan, which started to be implemented will it be still adopted? Are we going towards a severe restructuring?
Another bad news on Monday February 5th : the three companies announced they gave up the renewal of their fleet and cancelled their rental contract of eight Airbus A319 following the decision of SAirGroup which refused the financing. So many let-downs which explain the growing worry of the 6 000 French employees among which a thousand or so work on the international Airport of Nice, an important asset of the group.