South African carrier FlySafair is interested in buying the low-cost arm of state-owned South African Airways -- if it’s put up for sale. FlySafair management has approached SAA’s administrators about a possible acquisition of Mango Airlines, CEO Elmar Conradie, 44, said Tuesday. However, the business-rescue experts made clear their priority is to complete a turnaround plan of the main carrier due at the end of the month, he said. “The only one that makes sense is Mango,” the CEO said, when asked if he would be interested in any future SAA asset sales. A move for SAA Technical, which provides aircraft maintenance, would be “total overkill” given FlySafair’s fleet is already serviced by its parent company, Safair Operations (Pty) Ltd., he said. FlySafair sees capacity increasing by 15% this year, and the airline has yet to see any impact on bookings from the spread of the coronavirus. The South African carrier doesn’t carry many international passengers, the CEO said, while only 13 cases of the virus have been identified in the country to date. “It’s not having an impact on us yet,” Conradie said. “It could become much worse.”<br/>
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The parent company of Indonesia AirAsia has issued a profit warning for the current quarter, attributing it to new lease accounting standards and projected declines in ticket sales due to the coronavirus outbreak. In an Indonesia Stock Exchange disclosure, AirAsia Indonesia discloses that implementing the new standard will result in a 7% increase in interest expense on lease liabilities and depreciation on right-of-use assets, as well as raise the company’s debt ratio. As a result, the company plans to seek a waiver on the debt ratio restrictions imposed by creditors but stressed that this will not impact its financial position or ongoing obligations. The company notes that the coronavirus outbreak has led to a decline in projected ticket sales, with load factors on flights operated by IAA now 13% lower than its “average optimum level”. However, it did not quantify the decline or specify the monthly load factors of IAA-operated flights.<br/>
India’s biggest airline IndiGo expects its Jan-March earnings to be materially impacted due to a sharp decline in daily bookings because of the outbreak of coronavirus, the company said Wednesday. The company said in the months of January and February the impact due to the coronavirus outbreak was modest, but in recent days its has seen daily bookings come down by 15%-20% on a week-on-week basis. “We expect our quarterly earnings to be materially impacted,” the statement said. Indigo cancelled its flights to China and Hong Kong, and also reduced the frequency to some South East Asian countries, it said.<br/>
Latvian airline airBaltic is cutting capacity further and reducing staff as bookings fall sharply with the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, it said Wednesday. The airline, which is majority-owned by the state and employs 1,786 people, said it would temporarily reduce the number of employees by up to 250 people. “The company will seek voluntary solutions, non-extension of probation time, unpaid leave and termination,” it said. It said it had cancelled 580 flights until May 31. AirBaltic Tuesday said it had temporarily suspended flights to Milan, Verona and Rome in Italy, and to Tel Aviv in Israel.<br/>