Alex Trelinski
THE Valencian airline Air Nostrum has asked for a €103 million bailout loan from the Spanish government’s rescue fund.
The company says that it lost €129 million last year because of travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Air Nostrum started up in 1994 with its main base at Valencia airport with hubs in Barcelona and Madrid.
It operates as a franchise of Iberia under the Iberia Regional label with 91 domestic and international routes.
In 2019, Air Nostrum won the Airline of the Year Gold Award presented by the European Regions Airline Association.
Air Nostrum’s application to the government states that it would repay the proposed €103 million loan over seven years.
It’s entire workforce of 1,439 people has been on the ERTE furlough scheme for over a year.
Last November it announced a package of measures including a 25% drop in salaries to avoid redundancies ‘as much as possible’.
Other savings include reducing its fleet of aircraft by 14 to 39 and renegotiating deals with their external suppliers.
Air Nostrum has published a full summer schedule with additional routes above those advertised prior to the start of the pandemic.
READ MORE GOVERNMENT UNDER FIRE FOR €53 MILLION LOAN TO ‘OBSCURE’ SPANISH AIRLINE
