Source: PerthNow
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AIR Australia continued selling tickets even as it launched a desperate effort to raise $10 million, more than four months before its collapse last week.
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The Courier-Mail has obtained an email written by one of the airline's top executives early last October in which he outlined the "urgent requirements" for a cash injection from new investors.
The email from the carrier's chief commercial officer Damien Vasta is understood to have been sent to numerous Brisbane business identities to no avail.
It provides evidence for administrators KordaMentha and corporate regulators that the Brisbane-based airline may have been trading while insolvent before it fell over early on Friday morning. The failure stranded about 4000 travellers overseas and left about 300 staff without a job.
"We are currently in an uncomfortable financial position due to the backlog of creditors that have accrued over the past 6 months ...," Mr Vasta wrote.
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"There is approximately $18-$20m in trade creditors, either current or aged.
"The financial assistance is urgent if the airline is to remain as a going concern ... The airline will require $10m to trade independently again but our urgent requirement for Monday is $2m to allow an aircraft leasing company and the Air Navigation authority to be paid.
"Without this commitment we may be forced to ground the aircraft, enter voluntary administration, and lose all the existing
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