PARIS — France's second-largest airline Aigle Azur, which went into receivership earlier this week, said Thursday it had halted flights to several destinations and was suspending ticket sales.

In a brief statement on its website, the airline said that "we inform all our passengers from/to Sao Paulo, Bamako and Porto that all our flights are cancelled" and apologized to customers.

It added in a separate statement that for the moment it had also halted the sale of tickets for all flights from September 10, the day following the deadline for submitting bids to acquire the airline.

Following years of losing millions of euros, Aigle Azur filed for bankruptcy on Monday and was placed into receivership.

While flights have been suspended for the moment to destinations in Brazil, Mali and Portugal, the airline's top market, Algeria, which accounts for a majority of its activity, is not affected.

However, the airline said that bankruptcy rules would force it to gradually suspend regular flights.

The largest shareholder in Aigle Azur, which has 1,150 employees, is the Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, which owns Hainan Airlines, with a 49-percent stake.

David Neeleman, an American airline entrepreneur whose companies include JetBlue and TAP Air Portugal, owns 32 percent, and French businessman Gerard Houa owns 19 percent. — AFP