Air Europa sold

Subject to approval by the EU the Iberia subsidiary of IAG is to become the owner of Air Europa later this year. 

In a complicated deal the suggested price of €1bn has been halved and will not be paid to current owners Globalia for six years.  By arranging for Iberia to be the purchaser it stops any difficulties if IAG were forced to be broken up, due to IAG’s subsidiary British Airways being outside the EU.

IAG is gambling that the airline industry would have returned to normal by 2027 and Globalia, a private Spanish company who have owned the airline since its early days, is probably thankful to obtain that price in these difficult times.

In 2019, Air Europa posted an operating profit of €71m, compared to IAG's €2.6bn.  Neither company has yet published its results for 2020. Due to the pandemic last year, Air Europa's traffic decreased by 70% and its fleet was reduced from 68 to 52 aircraft.

www.aireuropa.com

www.globalia.com

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