New leadership has taken control of Aigle Azur (Paris Orly) without the approval of shareholders. Amid tensions between its former president and chief executive, Frantz Yvelin, and shareholders, the carrier has been taken over by Gérard Houa, shareholder of Lu Azur, which holds 19% of the capital, the news agency AFP reported.

Houa is president of Fondation France Chine, a platform for dialogue between French and Chinese leaders, and also a representative in France of the Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, which owns 49% of Aigle Azur alongside American entrepreneur David Neeleman (32%) and Houa's own company Lu Azur (19%).

Yvelin was abruptly sacked on the morning of Monday, August 26, together with three other executives with immediate effect. At Houa's side, as the newly appointed general manager, is Philippe Bohn, who was general director of Air Sénégal for less than two years until April 2019.

"Gérard Houa now holds the presidency of Aigle Azur and Philippe Bohn the position of general manager," a statement signed by the two new leaders said. "The strategic mistakes of the past two years must stop," they added, criticising the leadership of Yvelin, who took the helm in September 2017. They also criticised shareholders for having "abandoned" the carrier in mid-August. "Aigle Azur, to survive, requires vigorous and immediate actions", the statement said.

"The shareholders have long been kept in ignorance" of the situation of the company, whose results had previously been reported to be in "break-even, even a slight surplus", when in fact, the statement continued, "between November 2017 and June 2019, Aigle Azur lost more than EUR50 million euros [USD55.5 million]".

Neeleman told AFP and the newspaper Les Echos that he did not dismiss Yvelin, "who is still president of Aigle Azur", and that he was intending to take legal action against Houa for usurping the management of the airline. He claimed that HNA also disapproved of Houa's actions.

The Algeria and northern Africa specialist publicly fell into difficulties this summer. In mid-August, it said it had reached an agreement with Vueling Airlines to sell its business between Paris Orly and three airports in Portugal for EUR20 million (USD22.4 million). However, referring to the sale, Bohn told AFP: "Any initiative that would dismantle the company is definitely ruled out", adding that "selling assets would destroy the company."