Coronavirus Continues to Hurt Airlines, Including Sovereign Wealth-Backed Ones
Posted on 11/21/2020
Sovereign wealth fund-backed airline companies continue to struggle as COVID-19 gutted travel demand in 2020. Some examples include the Russian Direct Investment Fund’s backing of Aerflot, Turkey Wealth Fund backing Turkish Airlines, Investment Corporation of Dubai backing Emirates, Gulf Air controlled by Mumtalakat Holdings, and Qatar Airlines backed by the Qatar Investment Authority.
Malaysia Aviation Group, the parent of Malaysia Airlines, requested financial support from its shareholder, Khazanah Nasional Berhad. Malaysia Airlines remains in talks for a restructuring and that it was targeting a commercial agreement in the first week of December 2020. Any funding for the airlines company would be contingent on the results of talks with its creditors and lessors. Malaysia Aviation Group informed the leasing companies that Khazanah would stop funding the airlines and force it into a winding down process if talks with the lessors were not successful.