AccorHotels yesterday confirmed the possibility of taking a stake in Air France-KLM.
The French hospitality giant has previously held talks over developing joint projects with the carrier which is 14.3% owned by the French government.
Air France has been crippled by a series of 15 strikes this year costing about €400 million, forcing the airline’s boss, Jean-Marc Janaillac to quit after staff turned down a pay offer.
“AccorHotels confirms having resumed its reflections on the matter, being at very early stage of assessing the feasibility and potential terms and conditions which will be discussed with Air France,” AccorHotels said.
“There is no certainty that these initiatives will lead to any agreement or any form of implementation.”
French newspaper Les Echos reported on Sunday that the government was considering selling its stake in Air France and had received interest from the management of AccorHotels, according to Reuters.
Les Echos said the Paris government was studying three options. The first one would be to sell the whole stake to AccorHotels.
The second option would be a partial sale which would keep some state influence at the company.
A third option would result in a swap of Air France shares with AccorHotels, in which the state would get a stake in the hotel group.
AccorHotels is cash rich following the €4.6 billion sale of 57.8% in its investment arm AccorInvest last week.