Austrian Airlines Pushes Government to Sell Stake Fast

On Tuesday, the Chairman of Austrian Airlines said that the government should sell all of their 43% stake in the airline and pushed them to make a fast decision about the privatization in order to avoid any drastic cuts in costs. Peter Michaelis, the head of Österreichische Industrieholding AG, which is a government holding company, said that a buyer for Austrian Airlines’ stock, which is valued at 143 million euros with the prices right now, could be located by the end of October if an order to sell the share came quickly. The privatization order should cover all of the stake that the government holds, which will allow the biggest flexibility possible during the sale, Michaelis continued, and theoretically, the process of finding a buyer could be completed by the end of October.

Austrian Airlines, which serves the destinations in eastern European from their hub in Vienna, has been bearing the brunt of the record high price of fuel, and they are slowing down the economy of Europe. They gave a warning last month that reported they could have as much as a 90 million euro net loss for the year. In a news conference, Alfred Oetsch, the Chief Executive of the airline, said that he will have to cutback on jobs and cancel some of the airline’s destinations if the government does not approve of the sale by August. Wilhelm Molterer, the Finance Minister, is in favor of the sale, while the Social Democrats of Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer are in doubt. However, their new leader, Werner Faymann, Transport Minister, has stated that he isn’t against it in principle.

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