Former Tame workers seek, with international financing, to acquire the airline.

The Ecuadorian airline Tame EP would be in the sights of several private groups interested in acquiring it, after the government announced last May its disappearance along with seven other public companies.

Transportation Minister Gabriel Martinez said the airline has lost money in nine of the past 12 years and the accumulated loss is $311 million.

One of these groups interested in the airline is the Justice for Tame Collective, composed of 700 former company workers, who initially proposed to the government the reactivation of Tame, but without success, said Captain Andres Munoz, spokesman for the collective.

“We have proposed to the Government the issue of Tame’s reactivation, this we did with Minister Martinez and he indicated us that there was no more, that there was no possibility and that Tame was going straight to legal death, that is, to disappear”, said Muñoz, who after this answer decided to undertake privately and formalize their interest in acquiring part of the company’s assets with two letters of intent delivered to the Executive, the first one 15 days ago and the last one last Thursday.

Muñoz explained that the project was born four months ago and has the financial backing of a group of U.S. investors with experience in aviation business, of which no details can be disclosed due to a confidentiality agreement. Likewise, Muñoz assured that there are other interested bidders, which also cannot be made public due to an agreement signed with the state-owned company.

“It is a feasible project, viable, to the point that it has attracted many groups of investors. We have had meetings with several of them, but in reality we have decided to bet on the country with these investors, they are the only ones with whom we have reached a final agreement,” said the spokesman, who said that the plan is that this group will run with the economic part and then they will put up for sale a certain group of shares so that all Tame employees can invest in the project.

“We don’t know for how many, hopefully it will be 100 or 150, with that we will have already achieved our goal,” said Muñoz, who asked the Government for wisdom and interest, since he regretted that only part of the assets would be placed on the negotiation table and not the name, the routes, nor the certifications.

The airline, currently semi-paralyzed due to the coronavirus, maintains national and international flights, although in 2019 it suspended several, nationally with Salinas, and internationally to Bogota, Lima and New York.

Tame currently has local flights between Quito, Guayaquil, Manta, Cuenca, Esmeraldas, Loja, Galapagos, Lago Agrio, Coca, and Santa Rosa.

And abroad with: Cali (Colombia) and Fort Lauderdale (United States).

In this respect, Muñoz recalled, the intention of the collective was to buy the entire company, including the name, certifications and routes, but according to the Undersecretary of Transport and Public Works, Pablo Galindo, they would probably not be in the negotiation.

However, he said that if they do not succeed in obtaining the name of the airline, its routes and certifications will have to start a certification process from scratch, a probability that they have foreseen it within their operational plan.

“This is changing and will continue to mutate as the negotiation process progresses,” said Muñoz, who noted that there is still no amount for the proposal because there are still missing the technical assessments of the assets to be liquidated.

By El Universo

Photo: JTOcchialini / Wikimedia