To draw up a flight plan towards financial balance, the private and public shareholders of Air Austral, an airline from Reunion Island, appointed, during a supervisory board meeting on Friday October 18, a new chairman of the board: Hugues Marchessaux . The latter replaces Joseph Brema who officially resigned, but who, in fact, was pushed out.
According to an internal source, he was criticized for a lack of transparency regarding the reality of the company’s financial situation, considered more degraded than announced. The company’s shareholders had been looking for a new leader for several months. Last March, the State made known its strong dissatisfaction with the situation at the time, considering that the difficulties resulted “forecast errors and the non-implementation of restructuring measures”.
Aged 57, Hugues Marchessaux has held management positions for almost thirty years in the airline sector. He worked at Corsair, Air France, Bolloré Transports et Logistics, ASL, Air Cargo at CMA-CGM, before being appointed general manager at Air Caribbean Atlantique.
Objective: “to break even in 2025, profitable in 2026”
At the helm of Air Austral, its new president intends “overcoming difficulties with the help of employees and shareholders to secure the future”. The manager announces a strategy for the next three years described as “simple and modest: profitable growth”. With the lens “to break even in 2025 and be profitable in 2026”. “We need to put the pillars back in place so that the company can grow, says Mr. Marchessaux. The company has a future ahead of it. I want to reassure our customers. She will continue to fly and progress. »
The last fiscal year (from April 2023 to March 2024) of Air Austral showed a turnover of 440 million euros with a negative net result “of several million euros”, according to the leaders who also explain having “purged from problems during this exercise”. Faced with cash flow difficulties, the members of the social and economic committee (CSE) decided in mid-September to trigger an economic alert right.
Air Austral continued to produce debts and suffered from excessively high production costs. Among the main causes of these losses of money: lower attendance in July-August 2024 on the Réunion-Paris line due to the reluctance of passengers to go to Paris where the Olympic Games were taking place; operating losses caused by engine failures on two Airbus 220s used for regional routes (Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte) and on a Boeing 787. But also the costs of returning two Boeing 737s, i.e. 37 million in 2023 and 2024 .
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The departmental council refused to put in the pot
“To enable us to get through our activity at the start of the year and our cash flow low point, the shareholders are ready to recapitalize,” announces Hugues Marchessaux. With a commitment of 15 million which will be made next November. That is 8.5 million for the private shareholder Run Air and 6.5 million for the public shareholder, mainly the regional council of Reunion. At the end of March, shareholders had already been forced to reinject funds by voting a “ action and restructuring plan » of 10 million euros in financial contribution.
When the company was privatized in January, as part of a rescue plan for the company (until then majority owned by the regional council), the shareholders had already invested 30 million euros of new money from the company. share of Run Air and 25 million euros from Sematra (including 15 million euros from the regional council of Reunion, 5 million euros from the Department and 5 million euros from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Reunion). This time, the departmental council refused to go back to the pot. “We can’t go any further. declared its president Cyril Melchior to Quotidien de La Réunion. Reunion companies have gotten involved and that’s very good. »
Debts
Air Austral must also still struggle to spread out its debts which amount to more than 90 million, including 14 million in new tax and social debts between January and May 2024. With the idea of prioritizing its funds to operations. This debt, according to the new pilot at the helm of the company, is not “not exceptional compared to other companies”. “At the end of September, a second intermediate conciliation protocol was signed before the commercial court, observes Harold Cazal, member of the board alongside Hugues Marchessaux. Which gives us four months to renegotiate our debt. » Until next January with a possible extension. Around 38 million relate to bank debts. Air Austral intends to renegotiate interest rates. For its part, the State accepted “a break” in the repayment of its debts.
As a reminder, as part of the company’s survival, the first conciliation procedure, in January 2023, allowed the erasure of 185 million euros, including 105 million euros of bank debts and loans guaranteed by the ‘State. The Réunion Region had abandoned 70 million euros of debts.
Any social plan excluded
The new chairman of the board excludes any social plan, recalling that in May 2024 a collective performance agreement (APC) was signed to allow the company to save 11.6 million over two years. The employees then accepted the elimination of the thirteenth month and certain bonuses, the reduction of overtime and the abandonment of days of leave.
The decision to change the governance of Air Austral is warmly welcomed by the airline pilots’ union, SNPL France Alpa. “We have nothing against Mr. Marchessaux but he has very little experience running a company, regrets Vivien Rousseau, SNPL union representative at Air Austral. To cross a cyclone, we prefer Éric Tabarly to the helm rather than a student from Glénans. » The union official also criticizes the advisory role of the Aérogestion firm to the Air Austral management board. A firm headed by Marc Rochet, who sits on the board of directors of Air Caraïbe and French Bee, competitor of Air Austral.
“The company is not threatened with closure”
” Worried “ for the medium-term future of Air Austral, Vivien Rousseau recalls that the audit firm Accuracy, mandated by the State and the interministerial committee for industrial restructuring (CIRI), estimates the need for new capital between 35 and 60 million euros. The union delegate says he takes note of the desire of the new president of Air austral to create a company “profitable”. “We are waiting to know when, how and with what, he reacts. First on the financing of the company. Then on the fleet renewal project and the strategic axes of the Air Austral network, which are the essential elements guaranteeing the sustainability of the company. »
“We need serenity and unity,” replies Hugues Marchessaux. Amid strong criticism from the SNPL, the new president believes that “the company is mobilizing to overcome difficulties. We must not shoot ourselves in the foot and worry our customers unnecessarily. The company is not threatened with closure. »
