S.Africa's Comair needs $72m and to cut 400 jobs, administrators say

South Africa’s Comair will require up to 1.2b rand ($72m) of funding and will have to cut a fifth of its workforce to restart operations, administrators in charge of restructuring the private airline said. The airline, which has been under a form of bankruptcy protection since May, will be able to start operations in December if a business rescue plan presented late Wednesday is approved, they said. The plan, which had been delayed by over two months, will see a group of investors injecting up to 500m rand of equity, giving them 99% ownership of the company. Creditors will also have to provide new debt funding of up to 600m rand, along with another 100m rand debt from insurer Discovery. “This (plan) will further result in resumed employment for the company’s remaining employees, the provision of flying services to its customers and the establishment of resumed revenue with which to service its obligations,” administrators Shaun Collyer and Richard Ferguson said. The company's total workforce will be cut to 1,800 from roughly 2,200 and its fleet will be trimmed to 25 aircraft from 27, they added in their plan here published on the company's website. <br/>