"The exercise is well on track and it will be done this year," he revealed. However, he could not name the suitors although British Airways have reportedly shown an interest in the national airline. He argued that the tiny airliner needs the right aircrafts and airport although it has the best pilots, who are being poached by other airlines. He said that by the time the airline privatises, it should have met its needs. "If we set our airports correctly, we could catch a lot of business," he said. Brodgen, who has worked for several airlines around the world, explained that the government and the Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency (PEEPA) are behind the exercise. This will be ABs second attempt to privatise after pre qualified bidders pulled out of the bid last minute in 2003, citing unfavourable conditions in the aviation industry. The exercise was carried out with the help of International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank. In 1996, IFC successfully helped Kenya Airways - which has been seen as an African model - in its privatisation exercise,. Under the previous exercise, five airliners amongst them Comair, Air Mauritius, Kenya Airways and South African Airways showed interest in buying AB. However, from the list, the two pre-qualified bidders were Air Mauritius and Comair, and they conducted a due diligence exercise on AB. After the due diligence exercise, Comair became the favourite to win the race, but they later withdrew from the race. It cited the poor performance of the sensitive aviation industry. Under the initial plan, the strategic partner was to get 45-49 percent, AB staff 10 percent through Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) while the remaining 45 percent was to be offered to the public through the initial public offering.