A significant threat to the fiscus stems from the burden imposed by loss-making parastatals, especially Air Seychelles, which is experiencing financial difficulties owing to competition from the UAE-based Emirates airline, rising fuel costs and weak management. With Air Seychelles losing US$14m in the nine months to end-January, the government in March embarked on a management overhaul and installed a new board, chairman and acting chief executive officer, Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, who has temporarily stepped down as principal secretary for foreign affairs and as chairman of the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority. Routes are also being reconfigured and "unsuitable" contracts renegotiated. The government has no plans to privatise the firm because of its strategic importance-it carries more than half of all visitors to the archipelago-but the burden has risen and the state was obliged to lend the carrier SRs255m (US$21m) in the six months to January 2011, including SRs30m from the budget and R225m in the form of two loans from the state-owned Nouvobanq.