Icelandair is in talks with the Cape Verde government about purchasing a majority share in the African country’s national airline, Cabo Verde, which is now being privatized, RÚV reports.
According to an announcement in Aviator, as Cape Verde’s “strategic partner” in this privatization process, Icelandair will have the option of acquiring “…up to 51% of the capital of the Cape Verdean airline, with the remaining 49% to be sold to other investors, mainly diaspora.” The current value of the airline was not disclosed. “Should the proposal fall through,” states the announcement, “the government plans to eventually proceed with a new strategic partner.”
Cabo Verde Airlines was founded in 1958 and became a national institution when Cape Verde gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. It currently offers flights to destinations in Europe and Brazil. It also services a route to Boston in the US. Eight hundred employees currently work at the company, which owns two Boeing jets and rents several others, including two owned by Icelandair. There has been formal cooperation between the two companies since the Cape Verdean government signed an agreement with Icelandair subsidiary Icelandic Airlines last year.
