DUSSELDORF, Germany — Billionaire Alexander Lebedev denied being responsible for late wages at German airline Blue Wings, which said workers weren’t paid last month.
The carrier’s 250 employees received no wages for December, and only half the amount owed for November, after Lebedev failed to transfer enough money for salaries, spokesman Frank Lorentz said Friday.
“This is not true,” Lebedev said in a phone interview, adding that he made the latest transfer to Blue Wings of more than 30 million euros ($43 million) at the end of December.
Lebedev owns 48 percent of the Bocholt and Dusseldorf, Germany-based discount airline via his Alpstream investment company in Switzerland. He also has a stake in Aeroflot. Closely held Blue Wings lost its operating license for five weeks last spring, and Lebedev said he may sell the carrier for 1 euro to Aeroflot.
Blue Wings operates seven planes on routes linking Germany with Russia, Kazakhstan and the Middle East.
“The employees continue to work as they hope they will get their salaries for November and December soon,” Lorentz said.
Lebedev said Blue Wings’ management was “nontransparent.” But Lorentz said the airline “is perfectly transparent” because under German law every carrier is permanently under state authorities’ supervision.