Adria Tehnika reeling after Spanair collapse

Adria Tehnika counts its losses after Spanair collapse

The owner of Adria Airways Tehnika has announced that the aircraft maintenance company is in serious trouble following the bankruptcy of Spainair, its second largest client. Adria Airways Tehnika, the maintenance division of national carrier Adria Airways, was separated from the airline in January last year and sold to the government owned asset management firm PDP. It owns the company jointly with Ljubljana Airport which took a share in the company in return to writing off Adria’s debt to the airport. Adria Airways Tehnika has already reported poor financial results, which are set to be aggravated by the loss of its second biggest customer after Adria Airways. Spainair accounted for 25 to 30% of the company's revenues.

Spanair ceased operations last week in a surprise move after takeover talks with Qatar Airways failed and the Catalan government, which owns the majority of the Barcelona based airline, refused to come to its aid once again. On Monday the airline filed for bankruptcy. Currently, two of Spanair’s Airbus A320s are in Ljubljana. They were being serviced when the airline announced it was suspending operations. The maintenance work done on the jets has not been paid for. Adria Airways Tehnika is now negotiating with the owner of the Spanair aircraft, ILFC Leasing, to resolve the matter.

Spanair’s bankruptcy will prove as another blow to the already struggling maintenance company. Two years ago Adria Airways Tehnika posted a loss of five million Euros while the loss amounted to one million in 2011. However, this does not include millions of Euros owed by Adria Airways to its maintenance division. As a result, Adria Airways Tehnika plans to sue it main customer. Furthermore, its employees have been receiving only 90% of their pay recently and have not received social security payments. The management of Adria Airways Tehnika has put forward a restructuring plan, the details of which remain unknown.

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