The airline Onur Air, from Turkey, entered into a judicial recovery process after failing to pay the compensation requested by a pilot, who won in court the right to receive his unpaid wages.
In 2021, pilot Turgut Emre Topçu sued the Turkish airline after not receiving 105.000 Turkish lira, or $7175, in his salaries during the pandemic. The court promptly ruled in favor of the pilot, forcing Onur Air to pay the back wages.
However, the airline did not make the payment, and the pilot's lawyers requested the airline's insolvency, basically its entry into the judicial recovery regime. And the local justice approved!
Despite this, the decision should not affect airline customers, as Onur Air entered the pandemic with a large debt, and had to suspend its operations in June 2021. Due to the large debt and without operating flights, about 1600 company employees are not receiving up to date.
In a note, Onur Air said that this debt does not qualify Topçu as a creditor of the airline, and does not justify the request for bankruptcy. With that, the company declared that it will continue to challenge the decision and asked the court to suspend the Judicial Recovery regime.
Like Itapemirim here in Brazil, there is no expectation that Onur Air will return to operating flights soon, since all its planes were confiscated by leasing companies in February.
Source: Hurriyet
