Air Madagascar placed under court restructuring

Air Madagascar has been placed under a court-appointed restructuring process, the Indian Ocean island nation’s government has disclosed. The flag carrier is now under a collective liabilities settlement procedure, or procedure collective d’apurement des passifs after incurring an “operating deficit/cumulative loss” of around $80m, says the transport ministry. A statement from the Malagasy presidential office highlights ATR leasing costs at “double” the normal price and “uncontrolled” management costs, which it links to Air Madagascar’s partnership with Air Austral. It adds that Air Madagascar’s fixed charges have also continued to rise and that employee numbers “far exceed what the company really needs”. An in-depth audit of all the debts incurred by the airline will now be undertaken by the accounts commissioner. In addition, all agreements or contracts entered into by Air Madagascar must be terminated. The stated objective of the restructuring process, the ministry says, is to ensure “reliability, regularity and punctuality”, while also implementing a digitisation of management procedures and ticketing operations. The airline tells Cirium that because legal proceedings are still ongoing, it is not possible to give any information about the restructuring process and its modalities at this point. An official and detailed communication will be made as soon as possible, it adds.<br/>