Varig's sale to an employee group formed to purchase the bankrupt Brazilian airline was canceled by a bankruptcy judge after the bidders failed to make a $75 million down payment Friday.
The bankruptcy court judge, Luiz Roberto Ayoub, who has handled Varig's bankruptcy for a year, told journalists in Rio de Janeiro that he would decide on Monday whether to accept a purchase offer for the carrier's operating assets made Friday by Varig's former cargo unit, Varig Logistica.
''I have no interest in extending this process further,'' Ayoub said. ''I want to make a decision soon.''
The failure of the employee group's offer moves Varig closer to liquidation. The company is out of cash, using credit card receivables to pay for jet fuel, according to supplier Petroleo Brasileiro.
The 80-year-old airline canceled more than half its flights last week after taking 20 of its 47 operating aircraft out of service to comply with U.S. court orders to return the planes to leasing companies for failure to make payments, according to the workers' group that sought to buy the carrier.
The Brazilian government has put two Boeing 707 Air Force jets on standby to retrieve stranded Varig ticket holders overseas and two smaller planes to assist passengers in Latin America.
Varig's chief executive, Marcelo Bottini, said the airline had enough cash to keep operating.
Copyright 2005 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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