The Nivelles Commercial Court on Monday granted Air Belgium’s request to be placed under a judicial reorganisation procedure, PRJ, La Libre Belgique and L’Echo report on their websites.
The airline, which is headquartered in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Walloon Brabant, now has four months, until 22 January, to present its plan.
Last Monday, the carrier announced the end of its “chronically unprofitable” passenger flights from 3 October, leaving around 11,000 passengers with flights scheduled after that date out in the cold.
On the other hand, Air Belgium, of which the Walloon Region is one of the main shareholders, will continue its freight activity between now and the end of January. It will also continue to charter aircraft for other airlines during that period.
“As of today, our company is protected and your jobs are also maintained,” CEO Niky Terzakis commented in a message to his 500 or so employees..
Under the PRJ, flights scheduled after 3 October that were cancelled and already paid for will be given priority for reimbursement. However, it is not yet known how soon this will happen.
In 2022, Air Belgium recorded a loss of €45 million, giving a cumulative loss since the airline launched operations in 2016 of more than €91.6 million at the end of December last year.
Shareholders’ equity at that time stood at - €41 million.
