Egyptian national carrier, Egyptair (MS), is expected to announce in early 2013 a decision on whether it will purchase a 49.9% minority stake-holding in grounded Ghanaian carrier CTK CiTyLinK (CTQ), following the submission of a Due Diligence report by accounting firm, Ernest & Young, last week.
In late September, the two airlines signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Headquarters of the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation in Cairo, Egypt. However, a change in Egyptair's management has delayed the project as the new board saught to review the deal before proceeding.
CiTylinK Airlines first suspended operations in early August before losing its leased Fokker 100 over unpaid leasing charges shortly after. Its online booking portal, too, has been taken offline.
In an interview with Ghana's CitiFM, the Managing Director of CityLink, Tei Azu, said his airline was optmistic the deal would go through given the "advantages their association with Egypt Air would bring to their
airline" in terms of safety and reputation.
“We also want to tap into that every high level of safety and quality which Egypt Air has. Obviously in our market, that level of safety and quality is not there yet, the industry is quite young and we believe that we do not have to re-invent the will (sic) all over again so we will tap into Egypt Air’s resources to ensure that the new airline attains that level of safety and quality at a very fast rate,” he added.
Source [CitiFMOnline]
No details as to the finances involved in the deal, should it go ahead, have been revealed.