United said on Monday that its passenger unit revenue may have fallen more than expected in the just ended Q4, after the November attacks in Paris shook traveller demand and sharply lower oil prices hurt sales to the Houston hub carrier's energy clients. Passenger unit revenue, which compares ticket sales to flight capacity, fell between 5.75 and 6.25% in Q4 from a year ago, United Continental Holdings Inc said in a regulatory filing. That compares to an earlier forecast for a drop between 4 and 6% for the October-December quarter. The forecast may suggest continued turbulence for US airlines, which suffered from steep unit revenue declines in 2015. An industry-wide fare hike last week by US$6 round-trip may nonetheless boost revenue in the current quarter. For months, a strong dollar has hurt foreigners' demand for US travel and lowered the value of foreign sales in dollar terms. A decline in fuel prices has also allowed large US carriers to chop fares in line with budget airlines, such as Spirit Airlines, that have lower operating costs, ramping up domestic competition. United has taken a bigger sales hit than peers from last quarter's nearly 20% decline in US crude prices.<br/>
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Citibank has cancelled a ZAR250m (US$15m) loan facility to state-owned South African Airways, the latest blow to the cash-strapped airline. "We are aware that Citi has cancelled a 250m rand facility to SAA and are working closely with SAA on the issue to make sure there's sufficient liquidity. We are unable to comment further," Treasury spokeswoman Phumza Macanda said. SAA's financial woes were part of a political storm in December when President Jacob Zuma axed former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene. South African media reported that Nene was fired because of a clash he had with Dudu Myeni, SAA's chairwoman, over plans for a sale and leaseback arrangement via a third party with Airbus to purchase ten A320 aircraft. After a market meltdown, Zuma abruptly reversed his decision to replace Nene with an unknown former mayor and brought Pravin Gordhan back to the finance post he had held from 2009 to 2014. Gordhan promptly scrapped Myeni's plan, swapping the purchase of ten A320s for a lease of five Airbus A330-300s.<br/>
A 35-year-old Israeli man is facing charges after an Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to New York had to divert to St John's, Newfoundland. The man faces several charges, including causing a disturbance and uttering threats. Police say they were called to the St John's International Airport after the plane landed Sunday. The passenger was removed from the plane and taken to a hospital to be seen by a doctor.<br/>
Singapore Airlines is eyeing services between Wellington and Canberra.<br/>The service would then fly on to Singapore using an Airbus A330 aircraft. The airline is understood to have been in discussions with Wellington Airport, which says it can't comment on what airlines may or may not be doing. Singapore Airlines said it was "continuously evaluating new route opportunities" to provide more travel options and to support the further development of the Singapore hub. "However, beyond our recent announcement that we will be introducing Singapore-Dusseldorf services in 2016, we have no new route plans to announce at this stage." But aviation sources in this country say an announcement is imminent which would be a coup for Wellington as it seeks support to extend its runway and for Canberra which is limited to domestic flights and also has growth ambitions. According to the Australian Financial Review the service would run four times a week.<br/>