After several ups and downs since its announcement in 2018, the integration of Air Nostrum and CityJet was closed just a week ago. The president of the Valencian airline, Carlos Bertomeu, announced yesterday at a press conference the agreement of the new holding company, called SARA, the acronym for the new Strategic Alliance of Regional Airlines.
“Each of these companies retains its commercial identity and what they seek is to benefit from economies of scale,” explained the businessman. The union of the companies aspires to be “the largest group of regional airlines in Europe”, but all companies will maintain their economic independence. Bertomeu insisted: “Each company will be responsible for its accounts. “This is an airline platform in which each company continues to operate under its license and nationality,” he reiterated.
The integration is made up of Air Nostrum (80%) and CityJet shareholders, CF Miga Investment Holdings DAC (20%) and involves adding the 45 aircraft of the Spanish company, the 26 of CityJet and the other three of Hibernian Airlines. Also part of the holding company are Air Nostrum's maintenance company, Anem, and the crew training company, Air Nostrum Training OPS. The synergy will mean an increase in the workload for the Air Nostrum hangar in Valencia, since it will be in charge of maintaining CityJet aircraft, which will require hiring personnel.
At the press conference, the president of Air Nostrum also explained the economic results for 2022 that, after two years, return to the path of profits, sacrificed 100% for compliance with payment obligations.
The company grew by 48%, with a turnover of 494 million euros, and closed the year with profits of 19.5 million. “We had only lost money when we started and in the two previous crises,” remarked the businessman who described the company's current debt as “immense” and the recent Covid-19 crisis as “mother of all crises.” “The benefits are a great joy due to the circumstances and also very meritorious,” he added.
As explained by Bertomeu, the company has already returned 29 million euros of ICO credits and assumes the loan of 111 million euros that the Government granted it last year from the Fund to Support the Solvency of Strategic Companies. “Now everything earned has to go to pay the debt by legal imperative,” he added.
However, in the current scenario of international conflict - "everything that happens affects aviation, in some way," he said - Bertomeu assured that "the current situation makes the path to recovery very difficult, unprecedentedly."
