Spanair files for voluntary bankruptcy

Spanish carrier Spanair filed for voluntary bankruptcy Monday, officials said, three days after stranding tens of thousands of passengers by abruptly stopping all flights.

The airline declared liabilities of more than 300 million euros ($393 million) in a filing to be heard by a Barcelona commercial court, the High Court of Catalonia said in a statement.

Spanair is expected to lodge a labour force adjustment plan affecting all or some of its 2,400 staff, a union official told AFP. Companies must lodge such plans before laying off employees.

A total 4,000 jobs are estimated to depend on the airline when including contractors.

Tens of thousands passengers were left without flights after Spanair halted its operations late Friday.

Spanair, which was founded in 1986 and has about 2,000 staff, had tried to survive by a tie-up with Qatar Airways which fell through.

But Spanair chairman Ferran Soriano told Spanish television Friday that the Catalonia regional authorities, who own part of the company, would not continue investing in Spanair at a time of heavy public spending cuts.

“When we learned this morning that the merger was not going to happen in time and that the Catalonia government was not going to contribute more funds, the most sensible and safe decision was to close down operations,” he said.

The Spanish government has said it is taking action against Spanair for breaching rules on continuity of services and passengers’ rights in the course of its sudden shutdown, and may fine it up to 9.0 million euros.

Spanair’s former owner, Scandinavian airline SAS, says it retains a 10 percent share in the Spanish carrier and the bankruptcy will hit its own results to the tune of 191 million euros.

A statement on Spanair’s Internet site — http://www.spanair.com/ — told passengers how to apply for refunds or rearrange flights and said it had shut down operations because of “exceptional circumstances”.

“Spanair apologizes publicly to all those who have been affected,” it said.