US carrier Mesa involved in fresh bid for Flybe
By Josh White
Date: Wednesday 20 Feb 2019
(Sharecast News) - US-based regional airline Mesa Air Group is involved a bid to save struggling British carrier Flybe, it was revealed on Wednesday morning.
According to Sky News, the Arizona-based firm submitted a bid to rival a controversial rescue proposal from Virgin Atlantic Airways on Tuesday afternoon.
It was understood the Mesa Air consortium, which also included investment firm Bateleur Capital, featured an offer to fill Flybe's coffers with £65m of fresh cash.
The offer, which also reportedly had the support of US hedge fund Avenue Capital, would inject the cash at around 4.5p per share - a significantly higher offer than that made by the Virgin Atlantic-led consortium several weeks ago.
It would also include new debt facilities and a proposal for asset sales, making the new funding package worth around £120m to Flybe.
The plan would also see Flybe continue to be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
It was presented with interesting timing, coming three days before Flybe was due to be sold to the Connect Airways consortium, which consists of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group and Cyrus Capital.
Flybe shareholder Hosking Partners, which owns 19% of the ailing airline, had said it was furious at the board's decision to recommend the Connect Airways offer of 1p per share.
The troubles for Flybe became apparent after the airline issued a profit warning in October, citing rising fuel costs among the troubles it was facing.
Mesa Air Group owns Mesa Airlines, which operates a fleet of 145 aircraft to 200 regional destinations on behalf of US legacy carriers American Airlines and United Airlines.
Flybe is just one of a number of airline sob stories in Europe over the last couple of years, with fellow British regional carrier Flybmi folding on 16 February.
Low-cost and holiday airlines Azur Air, Cobalt Air, Primera Air, Small Planet Airlines and SkyWork Airlines have all collapsed since last summer.
Air Berlin failed in late 2017, with many of its assets being sold to easyJet, while Alitalia went into administration in May of that year before being rescued by the Italian government.
UK holiday airline Monarch stopped flying in 2017 as well, leading to the largest peacetime repatriation operation ever undertaken by the British government, as almost 100,000 travellers were left stranded.
More recently, Norwegian Air's shares tumbled on Monday after its board agreed to a cut-price sale of subscription rights in a bid to shore up the airline's cash flow problems, while German carrier Germania declared bankruptcy on 4 February and stopped flying the next day.
Email this article to a friend
or share it with one of these popular networks:
You are here: news
10 Lower Thames St,
London EC3R 6EN