Romania's Govt. ponders helping private airline Blue Air by becoming its shareholder

Romania's Government should opt to become a shareholder in the private airline Blue Air in exchange for the EUR 64 million emergency loan the company requested from the state, transport minister Lucian Bode said, according to Economica.net.

The idea hasn't been discussed with the airline, he added, but he didn't mention whether he talked about this option with other Government members.

The Government will discuss next week with Blue Air and the state airline Tarom about the emergency loans requested by each of them, totaling some EUR 130 mln. The Government reportedly received European Commission's approval for this state aid but has not transferred the money to the companies.

Speaking about Tarom, minister Bode said that "under any circumstances," the company will survive the financial problems it faces. He implied that the main problem is overstaffing and that 600-700 of the total 1,800 employees are redundant.

Blue Air initiated in early July the preventive agreement, a mechanism that gives a company facing cash flow problems a chance to avoid insolvency. For avoiding insolvency, the debt restructuring plan should be endorsed by debtors holding 75% of the company's debts. The negotiations for such a plan have already begun. The company hopes to reschedule some EUR 100 mln worth of debts for the coming 18 months.

(Photo source: Facebook/Blue Air)