South African President Jacob Zuma ruled out selling South African Airways, saying the government would never sell the money-losing national flag carrier. SAA has been surviving on state-guaranteed loans and asked the Treasury to extend more guarantees after it used up more than 85% of the ZAR14.4b rand (USD$965.50m) in loans already guaranteed by January this year. "The government is very clear, we will never sell this company, no matter what other people say," Zuma said at SAA's offices in Kempton Park, near Johannesburg. "I believe we can turn it around. This is one of the prides of the country, we cannot allow it to wobble." Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has said the government was considering selling a minority stake in SAA. The carrier is in the middle of a turnaround strategy led by Gordhan that will include appointing a new board and CE and cutting costs and cancelling loss-making routes. Last year, it cancelled unprofitable routes to Beijing and Mumbai but Zuma told cheering and clapping SAA staff on Friday that the airline's board should be thinking about adding routes rather cancelling them. "Once I see a flag at the tail of an SAA (plane), I always have the feeling that: 'Man, we are here, we have arrived'" he said. "Therefore, I wouldn't understand any notion that will say this company must be reduced or its capacity must be reduced. It must be expanded."<br/>
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Air New Zealand has agreed to settle a cargo cartel case in the US for NZ$52m. The airline said it settled rather than take the risk of a potentially "very material commercial liability" by continuing to defend its position. "This is purely a question of mitigating an unacceptable risk created by the US class action system which creates enormous pressure to settle such matters commercially. There was no credible evidence that any Air NZ employee participated in any conspiracy, but the potential for an unexpected verdict was not an acceptable commercial risk for the airline," said John Blair, Air New Zealand's general counsel. The case dates back to 2006, when a civil compensation claim was filed on behalf of several freight forwarders naming a significant number of global airlines, including Air NZ, for alleged conspiracy involving air cargo fuel and security surcharges between 2000 and 2006. In 2011, Air NZ having successfully defended its position with the US Department of Justice, was released from their criminal investigation. But after ten years of arguing the validity of the civil compensation lawsuit in US courts, Air New Zealand elected to pursue settlement with the plaintiffs. The settlement, reached through mediation efforts, was agreed last Friday. Despite settlement, Air NZ has not admitted to being part of the alleged conspiracy, the airline said in a statement to the NZX.<br/>