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South Africa is considering selling its stake in landline provider Telkom to fund a 10b rand ($757m) bailout of South African Airways (SAA), a Treasury spokesman said Wednesday. The airline runs one of Africa's biggest fleets but is loss-making. It received state funds in July to help to repay debts and also depends on government debt guarantees of about 20b rand. "It's an option among others we are looking into, and nothing has been finalised," Treasury spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said. Mayihlome was responding to comments by opposition Democratic Alliance party lawmaker Alf Lees, who told parliament Treasury was looking to sell its stake in Telkom to fund SAA. Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba told parliament on Aug. 4 the state would not privatise SAA or sell its stake in Telkom to fund bailouts of struggling state firms. The government holds a stake of about 39% in Telkom, while government pension fund the Public Investment Corporation holds another 11.4%. Gigaba has said he would disclose a preferable financing option for SAA at the medium-term budget statement in October.<br/>

Lufthansa has submitted a letter of interest in Air Berlin's Niki unit and other parts of the insolvent carrier, a source familiar with the talks said on Wednesday. Air Berlin, which is being kept in the air thanks to a E150m ($177m) government loan, has been in talks with interested parties since last week when it filed for insolvency after major shareholder, Gulf carrier Etihad, said it would no longer provide funding. Part of Air Berlin's appeal to bidders lies in its access to take-off and landing slots at airports such as Duesseldorf, in Germany's most populous region. Lufthansa said Wednesday it reaffirmed that it was keen to absorb part of Air Berlin. "The interest in a takeover of parts of Air Berlin Group was reinforced with a termsheet presented today," Lufthansa said. As part of a restructuring this year, Air Berlin transferred leisure routes to tourist destinations in Spain and Greece to its Austria-based unit Niki, founded by former F1 driver Niki Lauda. Analysts at Goodbody said buying Niki would strengthen Lufthansa's position against Ryanair on such routes. Lufthansa is unlikely to be able to buy all of Air Berlin for competition reasons. Any sale will be decided by a creditor committee, which met for the first time on Wednesday and includes representatives from Air Berlin, the federal labor office which is paying staff wages, Commerzbank, and Eurowings.<br/>

Air Canada will launch Montreal Trudeau-Tokyo Narita Boeing 787 flights in June 2018, the latest move by the carrier to make Montreal into its third major international gateway along with Toronto and Vancouver. Montreal-based Air Canada is aiming to use the 787, of which it has taken delivery of more than 30 so far, to make Canadian hubs into transit points for international passengers, particularly US passengers traveling to points around the globe. Toronto and Vancouver are already major international hubs for Air Canada and this year Montreal has become formidable in its own right. In 2017 alone, Air Canada has launched flights from Montreal to Shanghai, Marseille (France), Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington Dulles, Reykjavik, Tel Aviv and Algiers. It will start Montreal-Lima flights in December 2017. “Air Canada is continuing its global expansion by strategically building its Montreal hub,” Air Canada president and CEO Calin Rovinescu said.<br/>

Swiss International Air Lines is considering ordering the Airbus A321neoLR to operate on routes from Zurich to long-haul destinations in Africa, SWISS CEO Thomas Klühr said. “It is an interesting option, especially on routes where a 300-seat widebody aircraft is difficult to fill. The A321neoLR offers very efficient operations,” Klühr said. Lufthansa Group subsidiary SWISS is slated to take delivery of 15 Airbus A320neo family aircraft in 2019 and 2020, but it does not have any A321neoLRs on order. The A321neoLR is expected to enter service in H2 2018. It is unclear whether SWISS could switch some of its A320neo family aircraft orders to the A321neoLR. Klühr said SWISS does have the option to switch A320neo/A321neo orders to A320ceo family orders if issues with the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engine that have caused A320neo delivery delays persist. “We hope the difficulties regarding the A320neo engines can be solved. It is our goal to have this aircraft. However, we have the option to switch the order from the A320/321neo to the A320/321ceo,” Klühr said.<br/>

Singapore Airlines has parked the first Airbus A380 aircraft to enter commercial service. Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that 9V-SKA has been parked since 10 June 2017. SIA confirms that the aircraft is "undergoing de-lease work before returning to the lessor." The aircraft's last commercial service was SQ317, a London Heathrow-Singapore flight on 10 June. It is in a hangar at Singapore Changi Airport. Fleets Analyzer shows that the lease expiry is on 12 October, at which point it will return to German aircraft investor Dr. Peters Group. 9V-SKA (MSN 3) became a part of aviation history on 25 October 2007, when it operated the world's first commercial A380 service on the Singapore-Sydney sector. SIA will return MSNs 3, 5, 8 and 10 to Dr. Peters by the end of next year. After the return of MSN 3, MSN 5 will follow in January 2018. FlightGlobal understands that Dr. Peters has been considering parting out the first two A380s due to return from SIA, although it has not made a final decision.<br/>