Air France-KLM is considering postponing its capital increase, as many governments have imposed severe travel restrictions to limit the spread of the Omikron variant of the coronavirus. News agency Reuters reports on Thursday based on sources.
The French-Dutch airline hoped to raise EUR 1 billion or more by the end of the year, in order to strengthen its balance sheet and repay state aid. This is now likely to be postponed, Reuters sources say. It would be difficult to sell the story of a recovering air travel market to new shareholders with the new virus variant.
Since the emergence of the new variant, the shares of Air France-KLM have fallen by about 9 percent. The company has sufficient cash to postpone a capital increase, but cannot take over until the state aid has been repaid.
