Johannesburg – Low cost airline Fly Blue Crane’s business
rescue practitioner is still optimistic about the airline’s future.
However, in a statement issued on Friday, Etienne Naude
said he had requested an extension from Fly Blue Crane’s creditors on the
presentation of the proposed business rescue plan.
The plan, Naude said, would be presented in the next few
weeks after a few lose ends are “tied up”.
Naude notes, to achieve a sustainable plan, “Fly Blue
Crane will temporarily have interrupted services – a move that will allow the
airline to restructure its operations, reach critical agreements and fine-tune
its schedules”.
Naude says the extension of the plan is needed to “aid
the development and implementation of a sustainable strategy for the airline”.
for Fly Blue Crane
Towards the end of January, Naude said Fly Blue Crane was
evaluating its routes as part of a restructuring process following the
company’s application for business rescue last year.
Fly Blue Crane became the latest South African airline to
hit turbulence when it filed for a voluntary application for business rescue
late last year to facilitate the rehabilitation of the company. By opting for
business rescue, the company was taking a step many of its peers around the
world had taken in order to re-engineer and strengthen their businesses, the
company said last November.
The move came shortly after Fly Blue Crane launched
flights to Mthatha, Eastern Cape.
The company started flying in September 2015, entering a
market that had seen the demise of other low-cost airlines such as Nationwide Airlines,
1Time and Velvet Sky, among others.
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