Julian Moxon/PARIS
THE PRESIDENT of French airline Air Liberte, Lotfi Belhassine, has formed a consortium with the aim of acquiring rival private carrier AOM, "...if the price is right".
Belhassine has for some time made no secret of his desire to purchase AOM, creating what he calls a "privatised sector in French air transport". A merger of the two carriers would create Europe's sixteenth largest airline.
The consortium assembled to purchase AOM has ten partners and around Fr1 million ($200,000) of initial capital. Called Air Invest, the group includes Belhassine, International Lease Finance and various non-airline investors.
The Air Liberte president says that he is in "serious negotiation" with the financially ailing Credit Lyonnais, the principal shareholder in AOM, over a possible deal. No details of the bid have yet been revealed.
Both airlines are based at Paris Orly Airport, and would benefit from the extra muscle they would bring to the French private sector, particularly in obtaining more slots at Orly, where capacity is severely limited.
The private sector is now starting to emerge as a serious rival to state-owned Air France and Air Inter as European liberalisation has forced the French Government to relax its previously monopolistic air-transport policies
Together, the two private-sector companies would also be in a better position to take advantage of full European air-transport deregulation on 1 April 1997, when French domestic routes will be open to competition from foreign airlines.
The fleets of both carriers are largely based on McDonnell Douglas MD-83s and DC-10s, although Air Liberte also operates a small number of Airbus A300 and A310s.
Source: Flight International
