The weekend began with the tragic news that a Cubana 737 aircraft had crashed shortly after takeoff near José Martí International Airport (MAHA), Havana (Cuba) on May 18, 2018. Three people survived the crash and remain in critical condition but 110 passengers and crew onboard were killed – 99 Cuban passengers, three foreign tourists - two Argentines and a Mexican - and two Sahrawi residents in Cuba. Also among the dead were six Mexican crew from Damojh, which had leased the nearly 40-year-old aircraft to the Cuban flagship carrier.
Investigators are examining the wreckage and are still searching for the second black box containing mechanical data, having already recovered the cockpit voice recorder on Saturday.
IAG continues its bid for IAG
Unconfirmed media reports state that International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) has proposed a takeover bid for Norwegian that values the carrier at 300 crowns per share - 32% premium on NAS closing price at the end of last week. The news was reported by Spanish newspaper Expansion but was not confirmed by IAG nor Norwegian.
IAG owns a 4.61% stake in Norwegian, which it acquired in April will the aim of taking over the airline in full. Norwegian confirmed that it rejected two separate conditional offers from IAG for 100% ownership of the company in early May. The pricing was not revealed at the time but the board said that they were “unanimously rejected on the basis that they undervalued NAS and its prospects.”