South African Airways asked the govt for ZAR10b (US$772m) as part of a recapitalisation plan aimed at returning the carrier to profit, according to Finance minister Malusi Gigaba. The request was included in a 1-year corporate plan submitted by the airline to the National Treasury in March, Gigaba said in a written reply to opposition lawmakers, without saying whether he would agree to it. Any funds awarded by the state to SAA would come on top of this month’s ZAR2.2b injection to repay a loan by Standard Chartered. The National Treasury has ordered SAA to submit a turnaround plan that lays out steps toward a recovery before it commits to a further rescue deal. It was forced into covering the Standard Chartered loan first after the lender refused to extend a repayment deadline before the end of June. <br/>
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The country’s top airlines say resource-rich Canada has the potential to become a biofuel superpower by transforming forest residue and agricultural crops into energy that can help the industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Canada actually has an opportunity like no other country where it can displace large amounts of fuel and reduce large amounts of carbon,” Mena Salib, Air Canada’s manager of aircraft noise and emissions, said Tuesday. Salib said the industry wants to procure biofuels from local sources instead of transporting it far to meet demand. “The prize would be technology from Canada, the feedstock is from Canada and it is used by Canadians.” Air Canada has been part of several flight tests to study biofuels and is ready to add the lower carbon energy blends when they are readily available. <br/>
The airline industry's next top-of-the-card battle will likely break out next quarter in Denver, when Frontier Airlines will seek to dramatically expand and United Continental will try to make that difficult. It features two well-known industry veterans, United president Scott Kirby and Frontier CE Barry Biffle. Both worked at US Airways, one before the bankruptcies and one afterward. They have battled before, although not directly. Now, both Biffle and Kirby "have moved to new teams and different hubs, but otherwise they've laced it up and are about to duke it out," a former airline executive said. "They even used similar phrases, each talking about 'natural share' or some variant. This is good for consumers, not sure about shareholders." <br/>