Erlendur Svavarsson, vice-chairman of Loftleidir Icelandic, with is part of the Icelandair group, confirmed that the company presented a “declaration of interest” in the first phase of the privatisation process to sell 49% of Azores Airlines and that the company “!has been informed that it met the pre-qualification requirements”.

“This means we now have access to more information about the company” and then we will decide if we move on to phase two, Svavarsson told Lusa News Agency.

Loftleidir Icelandic was the only potential bidder to be pre-qualified.

All the share capital of SATA group is owned by its single shareholder, the Autonomous Region of the Azores.

Azores Airlines made a loss of €20.6 million in the third quarter of last year, but it has still not closed its final accounts for 2017.