The state enterprise Air Traffic Control (ŘLP) will not sell the training center for pilots Czech Aviation Training Center (CATC). Not one of the buyout offers met the company’s expectations, ŘLP spokesman Richard Klíma told Mladá fronta Dnes. According to the newspaper, the state now wants to continue operating the training center and develop it on its own in the future.
The ŘLP informed about the planned sale of the center with flight simulators in September 2020. The plan was to sell a 100% stake in the company in a public tender.
The Malaysian company Skyvax showed interest in the purchase, but did not pay a deposit of 15 percent of the purchase price, so the Czechia started negotiations with the Canadian company CAE. However, ŘLP did not reach an agreement with her on the sale either. “None of the proposals met our expectations,” a spokesperson for the state-owned enterprise confirmed to Mladé fronta Dnes.
After the collapse of the ŘLP negotiations, the management of the training center drastically changed, the newspaper points out. Antonín Jakubš was replaced as director by Marta Guthová, and the company’s supervisory body was also changed. From July, for example, the director of the Václav Klaus Institute, Jiří Weigl, or the economist and former CEO of Česká spořitelna, Pavel Kysilka, ended up on the board. Their posts were filled by members of the ŘLP management.
CATC, whose main activity is training and maintaining the qualifications of pilots, flight attendants and mechanics for commercial aircraft, uses 13 flight simulators and one fire simulator, for example for the most common Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 aircraft. Most of them are owned by the company, two are leased. ŘLP bought the company from ČSA in 2012 for CZK 280 million.
Source: Mladé fronta Dnes and CTK
Photo: CATC
