On 31 August, VLM, the airline operating from Antwerp Airport, went into receivership. In the evening, SHS Aviation B.V., the parent company of VLM, decided to halt all operations. This news appeared first in newspaper De Tijd.
In the afternoon forum member Avnu already wrote in our forum: “It is rumoured that VLM Antwerp will stop all activities as of tonight. More news after the arrival of the last flight of the day (VO148 from ZRH at 21:45).”
At the start of August, VLM announced to maintain only two routes from Antwerp Airport: London City and Zurich, next to the scheduled flights the airline planned to operate ACMI flights.
According to De Tijd, the airline sold three Fokker 50 to Swedish Amapola. Only remain three Fokker 50 aircraft based at Antwerp Airport. But the airline planned to have new ATR aircraft by mid-2019. 85 employees are losing their jobs.
A restart under the helm of former CEO Harm Prins is also a possibility, yet unconfirmed. Meanwhile, operations at VLM – Brussels, remain unaffected.
Hours after the report of De Tijd, SHS published an official press release:
SHS Antwerp Aviation (VLM) goes into liquidation
SHS Aviation B.V., the majority shareholder of the N.V. SHS Antwerp Aviation (VLM), today decided at an extraordinary general assembly to dissolve the Belgian airline and to liquidate it.
Earlier this month it was announced that VLM would discontinue the connections to Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cologne-Bonn, Maribor, Munich and Rostock and that VLM would henceforth focus on business charter flights and the Antwerp-London City Airport and Antwerp-Zurich routes. Also the scheduled flights from Antwerp to London City and Zurich are now cancelled.
The settlement takes effect immediately. Youri Steverlynck and Birgitta Van Itterbeek (Monard Law) were appointed as liquidators. They are responsible for the contacts with potential buyers.
SHS Antwerp Aviation N.V. is a subsidiary of the Dutch investment company SHS Aviation B.V., which is owned 60% by Dutch investors and 40% by Chinese investors. SHS Antwerp Aviation N.V. is developing airline activities under the trading name ‘VLM’. VLM employs 85 people.
Friday 31 August 2018
