Dismay in Guyana, relief tinged with bitterness in the Antilles: two months after ordering the compulsory liquidation of the Caire group (Interregional Express Airline), the mixed commercial court of Pointe-à-Pitre ordered, Friday September 29, the partial takeover of the regional carrier. The assets of the Air Antilles perimeter will be partially sold to Cipim (holding of the Edeis group, manager of sixteen airports) allied to the community of Saint-Martin, while the subsidiary Air Guyane is liquidated. The court authorizes 176 dismissals for economic reasons, including 78 within the Guyanese subsidiary, out of the 300 employees in the Caire group.
After the submission of six takeover offers by the deadline of 1er September, the court examined three of them, during a closed hearing on September 21. At the end of the debates, the judges accepted two takeover offers: that from the Cafom group, proposing a global takeover, with 194 of the 296 employees, and that which was finally validated by the court, with 120 of the 218 employees on the Antilles perimeter.
“It appeared during the debates that only the Cipim company and the community of Saint-Martin were able to justify, on the one hand, a real transitional solution that could be implemented while awaiting the processing of the requests from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, on the other hand, funding to ensure the sustainability of the company during this period”write the judges in the 32-page document sent to the parties.
“Ensuring territorial continuity”
“It’s a bitter-tasting victory”declares Mélissa Germé, SNPNC-FO union representative at Air Antilles. “We won our case. However, there is an unfair side for Guyana where we lose all our colleagues”, saddens the Martinican trade unionist. During the hearing on September 21, the judges rejected the offer presented by Guyane Fly, candidate for the takeover of the Guyanese perimeter, on which the airline Air Guyane holds a public service delegation to serve the landlocked Amazonian communities.
In the process, the president of the local authority of Guyana, Gabriel Serville, had threatened to refuse the public service delegation to the Cafom group if it was designated as buyer, because its offer did not guarantee “the full recovery of local employment”. After this declaration from the Guyanese elected official, Cafom withdrew its offer, leaving Cipim alone in the running.
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