Virgin Australia Holdings became Australia’s biggest corporate casualty of the coronavirus, calling in administrators after the outbreak deprived the debt-burdened airline of almost all income. Deloitte will take control of the company, the airline said Tuesday. The administrators will be tasked with finding new investors to inject capital, reorganising borrowings or getting a buyer in an attempt to save the business. “We have commenced a process of seeking interest from parties for participation in the recapitalisation of the business and its future, and there have been several expressions of interest so far,” said one of the administrators at Deloitte. The airline’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program is a separate company and is not in administration. <br/>
unaligned
Virgin Atlantic will only survive the coronavirus outbreak if it gets financial support from the British govt, the airline's founder Richard Branson said Monday. Virgin Atlantic last month asked the govt for emergency financial help in addition to the coronavirus package made available to all British companies, but a deal has not yet been reached. "We will do everything we can to keep the airline going – but we will need govt support to achieve that in the face of the severe uncertainty surrounding travel today and not knowing how long the planes will be grounded for," Branson said in a blog post to staff. "This would be in the form of a commercial loan – it wouldn’t be free money and the airline would pay it back." <br/>
Germany has agreed in principle to support struggling carrier Condor with emergency liquidity after the owner of LOT pulled out of a deal to buy the airline, 2 people close to the matter said Monday. Condor, a former unit of collapsed Thomas Cook, has grounded its fleet and called for state aid. A E380m (US$413.82m) state bridging loan, that allowed the carrier to be rescued last year, is de facto being extended and Germany will offer an additional E200m in liquidity, the sources said. Condor said that talks with the govt were ongoing, while the Economy Ministry declined to comment. No decision on a longer-term capital structure of the group has been taken, the sources said, adding that Germany plans to launch a new sales process for the airline after the coronavirus crisis. <br/>
Norwegian Air Monday reported that 4 Swedish and Danish subsidiaries had filed for bankruptcy and that it had ended staffing contracts in Europe and the US, putting some 4,700 jobs at risk. The airline is seeking to convert debt to equity, money from shareholders and Norwegian state guarantees in a bid to survive the coronavirus crisis. Norwegian Air said the 4 subsidiaries in Sweden and Denmark were companies that employed pilots and cabin crew. The cancelled agreements involve firms which provide crews based in Spain, Britain, Finland, Sweden and the US. Combined, it said some 4,700 pilots and cabin crew members would be affected while about 700 pilots and 1,300 cabin crew based in Norway, France and Italy remained unaffected. <br/>
Airbus has put 6 jets made for one of its largest customers up for sale after giving up on Malaysia's AirAsia taking delivery of them, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The unusual move is a sign of the deepening crisis in the aviation industry caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which some analysts warn could lead to a fire-sale of unwanted planes. Like other airlines looking to save cash amid lockdowns and travel bans that have crippled their business, AirAsia has said it doesn't need any more aircraft this year. Although "pop-up" sales of unwanted aircraft are not new, they rarely involve high-profile customers and typically include the manufacturer keeping the deposit, the sources said. Airbus declined to comment on whether it had done so this time. <br/>