Government finally offers Air Malawi to Comair

Government announced that it is offering Comair a 49% shareholding in the airline for K490,000 along with irrevocable options to increase its stakes to 80%.

“The Privatisation Commission (PC) is handling the deal on behalf of the government,” disclosed Deputy Transport Minister, Roy Commsy.

Government told Bizcommunity in February this year that they were looking for a partner who would venture into a public-private partnership with it and not an outright buyout as proposed by Comair.

“We only wanted a technical partner,” said the then Transport Minister, Henry Mussa.

He said that ever since Comair entered a franchise agreement with British Airways in 1996, they wanted to erase anything Malawian in the company and implement British Airways colours.

Malawi's Finance Minister, Goodall Gondwe conceded recently that the sale of Air Malawi has flopped after prospective buyers found the airline unviable.

Gondwe complained that for almost 30 years, Air Malawi has failed the country in delivering services that are reliable and from time to time has failed to procure basic operational materials such as fuel without government's support.

The recent decision to offer Comair the company has been exposed by a local daily which claims to have found a shareholder's agreement indicating that Comair's shares will grow to 80% and government will provide and guarantee loans for the company.

Commsy confirmed the development and disclosed that initially, Comair was demanding 80% but government has insisted on offering them 49%.

“We believe this is in the best interest of the nation,” Commsy told a local daily.