ASL Aviation Group is set to become Europe’s dominant provider of sub-contracted flights for express operators with the agreed acquisition of Liege-based TNT Airways and smaller Spanish unit Pan Air once FedEx’s acquisition of TNT is completed.
The Irish-based group, which positions itself as a ‘neutral aviation provider’, will roughly grow by a third with the takeover of the two airlines, which TNT has to dispose of as part of its acquisition by FedEx to remain compliant with EU airline ownership and control rules.
The aviation group was already lined up as the airline buyer under the failed UPS bid for TNT in 2012/13. In December, it emerged that the group was raising about €100 million for ‘expansion plans’. However, the price for TNT Airways and Pan Air will not be disclosed.
At present, ASL Aviation Group, with revenues of €382 million in 2015, owns and operates a fleet of about 100 aircraft for freight and passenger transport. It already owns four different European airlines that operate sub-contracted flights for DHL, UPS, La Poste and other customers, including most recently Amazon.
Under the deal announced on Friday (February 5), ASL will acquire TNT Airways and Pan Air, with a combined fleet of 35 planes and some 450 employees. Under a multi-year service agreement, it will take over the two airlines’ flights as well as contracts for wet lease flights by about 20 other planes.
"ASL Aviation Group will take over the flights operated by TNT Airways and Pan Air upon completion of the sale and will operate flights for the intended FedEx-TNT combination," a TNT spokesman confirmed today.
The TNT Airways fleet includes two B747-400 and three B777-200 freighters for long-haul routes and a large number of mid-sized B757 and B737 cargo planes. In Europe, TNT Airways serves 65 airports in 19 countries with more than 630 weekly flights by 49 aircraft, while there are twice-weekly direct flights from Liege to Shanghai, and weekly to Singapore/Shanghai, Dubai/Hong Kong and New York.
ASL, whose shareholders are Belgian shipping group CMB (51%) and private equity firm Petercam (49%), last year introduced a single brand for all its diverse airline operations, based on their geographical locations. Irish-based Air Contractors became ASL Airlines Ireland; French carrier Europe Airpost renamed to ASL Airlines France; Farnair Switzerland became ASL Airlines Switzerland; and Farnair Hungary re-branded to ASL Airlines Hungary. In total, 75 Europe-based planes out of the group’s c. 100-strong fleet now operate as ‘ASL Airlines’.
Whether TNT Airways and Pan Air will therefore also re-name, potentially to ‘ASL Airlines Belgium’ and ‘ASL Airlines Spain’, is unclear but probable. A TNT spokesman said: “We can expect that TNT Airways (and Pan Air) will eventually be rebranded.”
TNT’s ‘Eurohub’ at Liege airport is not part of the airline disposal and will become a key aviation hub in Europe for FedEx-TNT in future, alongside FedEx’s existing European air hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle and the Central Europe air hub at Cologne/Bonn airport.
