Swissair Group kept the plan of the former CEO, with an airfleet reduced from 39 to 31 planes, a number of employees from 1,200 to a bit more than 800 and a reasserted Mediterranean vocation.
CEO of Air Littoral for eight years, Marc Dufour had left the company at the arrival of Swissair for a divergence in the strategy. However, as it could be expected, he was selected as the rescuer for the recovery. Mario Corti, the CEO of Swissair Group (the new name of SAirGroup) has finally preferred the recovery plan presented by Marc Dufour compared to the propositions of the two other candidates: the American pension fund Wexford and the duo Bruno Allus and Jean-François Comine, two consultants in aeronautics.
However, everything is not settled. Indeed, Marc Dufour should get from Swissair the wiping off liabilities (480 million francs) and the financing of a restructuring plan evaluated at 800 million francs (nearly 1.3 billion francs). However, the overall of activities won’t be continued. The airfleet will be reduced from 39 to 31 planes and the number of employees, from 1,200 to 811. This plan, which was presented on Wednesday at the works committee has now to be negotiated from July 10th. It won’t be that easy. Moreover, trade unions, which declared they didn’t wish the come back of the ones who conducted the company to this situation, were not accepted by employees in this recovery operation.
Concerning Marc Dufour, he announced that he would limit the reduction of activities at 25% (without mentioning the flights to abandon) and it will be possible for employees who will be laid off to benefit from redeployment propositions by Air France. Two years would be necessary to turn round the company. The rescuer has also reasserted the Mediterranean vocation of the company, in particular with a foothold in Nice and Montpellier. This reassertion will please the administrator of the international airport of Nice, the CCI NCA. While waiting for a clarification of the situation, the Chamber had suspended works of the new commuter terminal. It was dedicated to the regional hub function (platform of connexions) that Air Littoral has in charge…