In Turkey, the aftereffects of the coup attempt continue to impact Turkish Airlines. The airline has cancelled the labour contracts of 211 Turkish Airlines employees as part of a purge of those sympathizing or belonging to a religious group led by Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher in exile in the United States.
The airline said in a statement: “Active as of 22nd July 2016, contracts are canceled given the nonfulfillment of performance criterion and in line with the necessary actions we are taking against the FETÖ structure, attitudes and behavior conflicting with the interest of our country and company.”
The statement ended: “As Turkish Airlines, united with all of the heroic and honorable Turkish people in extraordinary efforts, we have acknowledged our responsibility to terminate the malevolent illegal attempt. Under any circumstances, we have and will continue to fulfill our responsibility to contribute to democracy.”
In other news, Etihad is set to take a bath on its Virgin Australia Airlines holdings as it is becoming clear that the Middle East giant will indeed see its 21.83% stake halved to around 11% if it does not take up its entitlement to shares in Virgin's $852 million raising, which closes on Wednesday this week.
Virgin is issuing shares at 21c each, very close to the current price level, which will not attract a great many investors to the table one assumes. In the event SIA may raise its stake to 25.99% from the present 20.09% while HNA will increase its holding to 19.99% from 13.04%. Is it the case that the Etihad advances to the Chinese to check SIA have backfired?