Air Caraibes and Corsair Int’l CEOs clash over state aid

Air Caraibes Atlantique (CAJ, Paris Orly) and French Bee (BF, Paris Orly) chief executive Marc Rochet is prepared to file a complaint in Brussels against French state aid pledged to rescue its competitor Corsair International (SS, Paris Orly) if the European Commission chooses to approve it, Les Echos and La Tribune reported. As reported last week, of the EUR297 million euros (USD358 million) to be injected into Corsair by the end of 2020, pending approval by the Commercial Court of Créteil in Paris and the European Commission, nearly half (EUR141-146 million (USD170-176 million), depending on the source) will come from state coffers. Though the exact amounts and conditions of the plan have not yet been made public, Rochet told journalists on November 30 that he questioned whether any participation of the French state went against the rules of healthy competition. According to him, for a company that has experienced only two profitable years over the past decade, 2016 and 2017, and “all of whose routes were in deficit in 2019”, the government is prepared to spend “the equivalent of EUR146,000 [USD176,000] per employee” to save Corsair and its 1,000 employees. The amount is “completely disproportionate”, he protested. Groupe Dubreuil subsidiaries Air Caraibes and French Bee, on the other hand, he said, have had competent management enabling them to earn a profit almost every year for more than 15 years but are now weakened by companies with multiple losses. Rochet, who has also criticised state aid to Air France (AF, Paris CDG), exclaimed that the state, “responsible for sacred taxpayers’ money”, must not “harm healthy companies”. He predicted that the funds would be used to strengthen the Corsair International fleet rather than ease its deficit, stressing: “State aid must not be used to grow fleets or routes.” He qualified, however, that he was not yet at the stage of filing a complaint but would wait for the decision from Brussels on the Corsair plan. Speaking on the BFM TV news channel on the same day, Corsair International CEO Pascal de Izaguirre responded to Rochet’s claims.