An Air France counter in Havana (Cuba), March 27, 2020. – Fabien Dupoux / SIPA
Like a wingless plane sings Charlélie Couture. So that it doesn’t happen to
Air France, the state will provide the airline with 7 billion euros in loans to overcome the crisis linked to
Covid-19. These loans will be broken down into 4 billion bank loans guaranteed by the state and 3 billion direct loans from the state, said
Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy and Finance
during an interview on TF1, Friday evening.
“We must save our national company,” said Bruno Le Maire, describing this plan as “historic”. The minister said that nationalization was not on the agenda.
The Netherlands in support of KLM
An hour later, Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra pledged € 2-4 billion in public aid for KLM at a press conference in The Hague. The French and Dutch states each own around 14% of the AIr France-KLM group.
In total, the Franco-Dutch airline group will be able to count on an envelope of 9 to 11 billion euros to overcome the historic crisis in the aviation sector, put on hold by the multiple travel restrictions imposed by authorities around the world. to curb the Covid-19 epidemic.
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