SLOVAKIA’S national carrier, Slovenské Aerolínie (SA), has cancelled all regular flights from Bratislava to Brussels and Moscow as of today.
The cancellations came after SA’s majority owner, Austrian Airlines (AUA), took back two planes it had made available to SA due to what it called the “reluctance of the Slovak government to settle hidden liabilities at the company”.
The move left SA with just one airplane.
AUA gained a 62-percent stake in SA two years ago in a controversial basic capital increase that was seen as a back-door privatization. At the end of 2006, AUA demanded that the government cover SA’s outstanding Sk171 million in debt.
So far, however, the government has not decided the matter.
