Eight international airliners compete for Air Malawi bid
Malawi’s Privatization Commission (PC) has shortlisted eight international companies in the race for a strategic partner for a restructured Malawi’s flag carrier, Air Malawi (2012) Limited.
This comes month after government appointed Lekani Katandula as liquidator of Air Malawi Limited to oversee the settlement of liabilities as well as the transfer of assets into Air Malawi (2012) Limited.
According to a press release from the PC the companies are Comair Limited of South Africa, Ethiopian Airlines of Ethiopia, Global Business Network of Botswana, Fly Africa of South Africa, Africa Star Airways Limited, Air Express Limited, Jetlinks Airways Limited and Alpha and Omega.
However three local companies have failed to disqualify for race and these are Global Airlines, Mpatsa Holdings Limited and CDH Limited.
“The committee looked at the track record of the bidders in airline operations as well as willingness to partner with Malawian nationals,” reads the press statement in part
The three have also been disqualified for failure to demonstrate evidence of financial capability to recapitalize the airline based on a sound business model.
But not all is lose to those that have been disqualified as they have been asked to encouraged to seek participation as financial investors with consortia led by shortlisted firms,” reads a statement from PC.
Recent reports indicate that Air Malawi (2012) Limited is expected to have at least 51 percent local shareholding.
Despite this Air Malawi workers are being assured that there will be no any sort of job cuts and that the airline will operate normally.
