The management of Madagascar Airlines presented a draft voluntary departure plan (PDV) at the end of March 2024. The national airline has been mired in financial difficulties for several years. A situation which justifies this PDV, according to General Director Thierry de Bailleul. Details.
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With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Pauline Le Troquier
HAS Madagascar, it is yet another rescue plan to straighten out Madagascar Airlines. In November 2023, the general director of the national airline, mired in financial difficulties for years, announced a recovery plan called “Phoenix 2030”.
Arriving at the head of the company in December 2022, Thierry de Bailleul is implementing a new restructuring method. It wants to be a complete break with past choices. Drastic measures, such as a voluntary departure plan (PDV) announced to employees at the end of March.
Of all the recovery plans that Madagascar Airlines has undergone, this latest one is undoubtedly the one that shakes people up the most, according to a source within the company.
800 employees for two aircraft in service
Five months after its announcement, management, which aims to return to a balanced budget in 2025, intends to tackle the payroll marked by a “ obvious overstaffing »: 800 employees for only two planes in service.
Thierry de Bailleul defends a necessary evil: “ Running an airline with so few planes and restricted activity, even temporarily to [vols] domestic workers, it is not reasonable to do it with 800 employees. Just look at the workforce of equivalent companies. The Tsaradia company which existed at the time, for example, had half the number of employees. »
The company’s activity was in fact restructured in November, with the suspension until further notice of all its long-haul flights, which were too expensive, in favor of domestic activity. No other choice in these conditions than to adjust the staff, believes the general director, who wants to believe in consensual discussions, without imposing, for the moment, departures. “ Volunteers need to come forwardhe insists. So, it is not for me to say – at least not at this stage – how many volunteers should leave. It is up to them, it is up to the employees, to express themselves on this subject, of course “.
Ex-president of the board of directors speaks out against the current management of the company
The World Bank, the island’s major donor, has committed to financing the entirety of this recovery plan, estimated at $57 million over five years.
But these measures also come with their share of criticism. Internally, Thierry de Bailleul must deal with the voice of Rinah Rakotomanga, former president of the board of directors of Madagascar Airlines, a position from which she resigned in November. On social networks, the latter, who continues to sit on the company’s board as a director, virulently opposes the management and strategic choices made by the general director.
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