Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH
DEUTSCHE BA IS TO sell its loss-making turboprop activities to French carrier Regional Airlines, leaving the German British Airways daughter to focus on its jet-airliner operations. The sale comes just a month after BA announced that it was to restructure its European operation as part of a L1 billion ($1.6 billion) cost-saving drive.
The two airlines have signed a memorandum of understanding on the sale, due to take place at the beginning of 1997. Regional plans to place Deutsche BA's five Saab 2000s, along with crews and staff, into a new German subsidiary operating as an independent business unit.
The new airline will also inherit Deutsche BA's turboprop network, consisting of ten domestic and international routes from Bremen, Friedrichshafen and Stuttgart.
Whether Nantes-based Regional will also take over Deutsche BA's five Saab 2000 options is still under discussion. The four remaining Saab 340s in the Deutsche BA fleet are to be phased out of service by the end of October.
Deutsche BA managing director Richard Heideker says that it is unclear whether the new Regional subsidiary will remain based at Friedrichshafen. Other airports in southern Germany are also being considered.
Since its founding, Deutsche BA has become the second-biggest German carrier, carrying 2.2 million passengers in 1995, including 298,000 on its turboprop network. Plagued by a vicious price war, the airline has so far failed to make a profit in either jet-aircraft or turboprop operations.
The company now has a fleet of nine Boeing 737-300s, mostly leased from Danish airline Maersk Air, and five Fokker 100s.
The Fokkers will be disposed of in 1997 - possibly being returned to lessor TAT, the BA-owned French airline.
Source: Flight International
