Europe Airpost (Paris CDG) parent, ASL Aviation Group (ASL), has acquired the Farnair Group of companies, a Swiss-based global aviation services firm, with the transaction expected to close before the end of the year, once all pending regulatory and customary approvals have been received.
Based in Switzerland, the Farnair Group consists of four airlines – Farnair Switzerland (Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg, CH), Farnair Hungary (Budapest), Quikjet Airlines (QO, Bengaluru International), and a 45% stake in Thailand's K-Mile Asia (8K, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi). The Group's acquisition will bring the total number of affiliate airlines in the ASL Aviation Group to seven including Air Contractors (Dublin International) in Ireland, Europe Airpost in France, and Safair (FA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) in South Africa.
"When completed, this transaction will combine the strengths of two successful aviation groups and will provide industry-leading service performance to existing and prospective future customers world-wide," ASL Group said. "The acquisition of Farnair offers ASL Aviation Group a unique opportunity to considerably strengthen its position as the neutral provider of airline services to the major express integrators on a global scale."
Farnair Group management will remain in place while the addition of its fleet will bring the total ASL Aviation Group fleet to over 100 owned and/or operated aircraft.
ASL is a joint venture between CMB (51%) and 3P Air Freighters (49%) (a private equity fund managed by Petercam, an independent and integrated financial intermediary in the Benelux) .
