South African Airways is striving to return to profit in 3 years by reducing the size of the network and transferring planes to its low-cost carrier as CE Vuyani Jarana embarks on a recovery plan. A turnaround of the airline is among the more urgent priorities of newly appointed Finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, who is seeking to avoid a repeat of the govt bailout approved by his predecessor Malusi Gigaba last year. The carrier’s net loss widened more than three-fold to ZAR5.6b (US$473m) in fiscal 2017 and the company may not be able to operate as a going concern, South Africa’s Auditor General said last week. “We now have a clear strategy and clear path to profitability defined by the board,” said Jarana, who became SAA’s first permanent CE in 3 years when he started work in November. <br/>
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After IndiGo expressed interest to buy Air India's international operations last year, a consortium led by Jet Airways along with Air France-KLM and Delta Airlines has expressed interest in the disinvestment of Air India, according to a report. Going ahead with the strategic disinvestment of debt-laden Air India, the govt is expected to soon invite Expression of Interest from the bidders. Last year, Turkey's Celebi Aviation Holding and Delhi-based Bird Group had shown interest in buying Air India's ground handling operations. Jet Airways' possible bid for Air India by way of a consortium comes at a time when CE Vinay Dube, without naming any manufacturer, said Jet hopes to order 75 narrow-bodied aircraft by March 31 in addition to 75 Boeing 737 MAX that the airline had ordered in 2015. <br/>
Questions continue to swirl on the feasibility of the timeline put forward by Boeing for its proposed New Mid-market Airplane (NMA), with some questioning whether the aircraft will be ready by 2025. "I'm not so sure it'll show up in the 2024-25 period," said Andrew Levy, CFO of United Airlines. As a result, United is not building its fleet plan around the proposed widebody being available by 2025, he says. United is looking at nearer-term alternatives, including the Airbus A321LR and Airbus A330-800neo, to replace some of its 128 Boeing 757s and 767s, two models that the NMA is designed to replace. Such a move by United would be a blow to Boeing, as the airline is a long-standing loyal customer that has long sought a new aircraft in the NMA's market segment. <br/>
United Airlines looks determined not to allow American Airlines to get the upper hand in the battle for O’Hare Airport. The two have been locked for 2 weeks in an increasingly fierce fight over gate allocation at O’Hare. American cried foul after the carrier allegedly found out just days before the unveiling that United had — unfairly AA says — been unilaterally awarded 5 gates. United insists American is lying, while AA unveiled a dedicated website that lays out its side of the story and the reasons why a reconsideration of the announced gate allocation at O'Hare will be good for Chicagoans. Meanwhile, United has launched another salvo. Late last week, United COO Greg Hart sent a memo to some 15,000 Chicago-based United team members indicating the carrier is on board with the O’Hare expansion plan. <br/>
Air Canada late Monday was working to clear a backlog of passengers following what the carrier termed “computer-telecommunications issues” that affected both domestic and international flights. “The computer and telecommunications issues affecting our operations have been resolved and we apologise for any inconvenience this situation has caused,” Air Canada president Ben Smith said Monday afternoon. Tweets from several Air Canada hubs, including Toronto Pearson and Vancouver International airports, called the issue a “worldwide” outage. Toronto noted the issue was affecting the airport’s Flight Information Display System. Two hours after the airline's first tweet, Air Canada followed up on Twitter, reporting that “airport systems, check-in & customer call centres are now all back online.” <br/>