The Pointe-à-Pitre Commercial Court on Wednesday August 2 placed the Cairo group in judicial liquidation with a two-month continuation of activity. The group is made up of the airlines Air Guyane Express and Air Antilles Express. The pilots’ strike was immediately suspended. “We are satisfied with the decision, which should make it possible, we hope, to find a buyer (for the company) so that it can be managed properly”, reacted Me Rudy Ouakrat, lawyer for the pilots’ union.
Referring to a company with “a bright future […] absolutely necessary since it offers a public service”, the lawyer judged that “it is necessary that it move forward without Éric Koury”, the CEO of the group. “We look forward to establishing a working relationship with the future buyers”, commented Brieuc Hardy, union representative of SNPL-Cairo. The unions of the pilots of the two subsidiaries of the Interregional express airline (Cairo), on strike since July 14, announced Wednesday morning during the hearing, via press releases, “to suspend [their] strike and resume work on Thursday Morning “.
This Caribbean air transport player, which has 300 employees, plays a major role in opening up the islands of the region. The striking pilots of these two subsidiaries of the Interregional Express Airline demanded the salary increases granted at the end of a previous conflict, last December, and which, according to them, were not honored. The CEO of the group, Éric Koury, opposed these requirements to the company’s indebtedness, and he had filed with the Pointe-à-Pitre commercial court a request for suspension of payments and compulsory liquidation of the company. business.
The hearing, which took place on Wednesday morning, lasted nearly three hours and the liquidation decision was announced on Wednesday evening. The strike, which started during the summer holidays, has left many travelers without a solution in the Caribbean islands, which the company connects from Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana.