Primera Air stefnir í gjaldþrot

Primera Air Nordic og Primera Air Scandinavia munu sækja um greiðslustöðvun á morgun. Samkvæmt heimildum Vísis var starfsmönnum félagsins tilkynnt um þessi áform í tölvupósti í dag. Þeim hefur öllum verið sagt upp, eftir því sem Vísir kemst næst.

Í póstinum kemur fram að seinkun á afhendingu nýrra Airbus-flugvéla félagsins, með tilheyrandi seinkunum og niðurfellingu flugferða, hafi verið meðal þess sem reið félaginu að fullu. Eigendur hafi á síðustu mánuðum unnið að endurfjámögnun félagsins sem ekki hafi borið árangur.

Unnið er að því að flytja allt starfsfólk flugfélagsins, sem er statt á einhverjum af áfangastöðum Primera, til síns heima.

Starfsmönnum var greint frá vendingunum á fundi í Riga í dag. Eigendur félagsins munu senda frá sér yfirlýsingu á miðnætti að þarlendum tíma með nákvæmari upplýsingum.

Vélar á vegum Primera Air-samstæðunnar hafa flogið frá Íslandi undir flugrekstrarleyfi sem skráð er í Lettlandi. Félagið flaug fyrir íslenskar ferðaskrifstofur og flugfreyju- og þjónar um borð í vélum félagsins eru flest frá Lettlandi.

Ekki hefur náðst í Andra Má Ingólfsson, forstjóra og eiganda Primera Air, eða Ásgeir Vilhjálmsson, framkvæmdastjóra flugrekstrarsviðs, vegna málsins.

Hér að neðan má sjá póstinn sem sendur var á starfsmenn Primera Air í dag.

Dear colleagues,

It is with great regret I am reaching out to you all this dark day. We have just been informed that both Primera Air Nordic and Primera Air Scandinavia will file for bankruptcy tomorrow October 2, 2018.

Currently flights are operated as normally and OCC, Crewing and Travel are working on arranging travel home for crews who happen to be on outstations.

Reasons I am sure are many but very high cost for the aircraft with corrosion last year as well as the delays of our new Airbuses lead to too high costs for wet lease and cancellations which in the end became too much for the airlines. Our owner was working on securing financing but was not able to in the end. This is what was stated during today’s staff meeting in the Riga office.

All the staff in the Riga office have been informed but official information will not be sent out until midnight by our owner. I understand it is difficult but please keep this to yourself if you can until after the official notification from the owner. In fact, I am not even authorized to send this email but I think it is the right thing to do for all of you out there on the line. You deserve to know.

I will continue to be available on phone and email.

God knows it has not been without its challenges but thanks to all of you great colleagues it has been a real honour to be at the controls of the flight ops department the past 7 years. We got the permits, we flew the flights, we got good reviews from the passengers. In other words, we fulfilled our part of the mission. The financial and commercial aspects we could not influence.

Thank you all for the past years and take good care of you out there.