Lufthansa is unlikely to take delivery of all 80 of the jets it's allowed to accept through 2023 under terms of a E9b government bailout, according to a person familiar with the matter. The German airline will instead prioritize quick repayment of the aid, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters. While the plans are in flux and depend on the pace of a travel recovery, any shortfall would be a setback for Airbus SE. The European planemaker, also partly owned by Germany, is Lufthansa's most important supplier and lobbied for stronger assurances that the airline would keep up plane deliveries, people familiar with the matter said. The tension over orders shines a light onto the inner workings of one of Europe's biggest airline bailouts, and the pressures that shaped decisionmaking on a drawn-out, white-knuckle process. Lufthansa had 198 aircraft on order at year-end, of which 156 were for Airbus jets. During discussions on the airline's rescue financing, the planemaker's CEO, Guillaume Faury, pressed his Lufthansa counterpart Carsten Spohr to take all Airbus aircraft on order through 2023, the people said. The German government acted as mediator, they said, resulting in a compromise memorialized in the aid package: Lufthansa would not cancel any aircraft orders, while it would accept a maximum of 80 aircraft during the period. "Airbus certainly would have liked to use the bailout package for Lufthansa to ensure delivery of most the aircraft," said Daniel Roeska, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein. "But that would have put management in a tight corner and may even have raised concerns with the European Commission," which monitors competition.<br/>
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South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, said the government has yet to determine how the rescue of South African Airways will be funded. His ministry and the National Treasury said on July 16 they would mobilize the additional 10b rand ($599m) the bankrupt airline’s administrators said is needed to effect the rescue. In a July 17 Twitter posting Finance Minister Tito Mboweni denied planning to bail out SAA. “What government has committed to is to mobilize funding, Gordhan said in an interview on The Fix, a program on Johannesburg-based television station eNCA. “Now where it comes from, the form is comes is something that is still being worked on.”<br/>
Turkey has suspended flights to Iran and Afghanistan as part of measures against the coronavirus outbreak, the Transport Ministry said on Sunday. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that 25 million people may have been infected with the coronavirus in Iran, although health officials later sought to play down the estimate. Turkish Airlines had gradually restarted international flights as of June 11.<br/>
India has cautiously opened up limited air travel with a clutch of countries including the US and United Arab Emirates (UAE). United last Friday started operating 18 flights from Newark and San Francisco to Delhi, following an air bubble agreement. The flights, till the end of the month, follow an accusation by Washington that Delhi was unfairly operating paid flights under its repatriation programme amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Air India, which has conducted the repatriation flights, will now be allowed to operate separate commercial flights based on demand, with schedules that have yet to be finalised. Similar agreements have been worked out with the UAE, France and Germany, while negotiations with Britain are in the final stages. Flights to the UAE began on July 12. Air France last Saturday started 28 flights to Delhi/Mumbai and Bengaluru. These will run till Aug 1, said the civil aviation ministry. "Until international civil aviation can reclaim its pre-Covid-19 situation in terms of numbers, the answer will lie in bilateral air bubble agreements which will carry as many people as possible under defined conditions," Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a press conference last Thursday. He said that apart from a valid visa, passengers would require additional government approval to travel under these agreements and that the arrangements would be reviewed at the end of two weeks. "Because many countries are still imposing entry restrictions, as are we, it's not that anyone can travel from anywhere to anywhere. You need permission. These are in the initial experimental stage. We are operating under strict standard operating procedures."<br/>
More than 300,000 people who had their Air NZ flights cancelled owing to Covid-19 can now manage their booking credits online. The airline has launched the new tool to allow customers to re-book through the website without having to go through the call centre. The move comes following an apology from Air New Zealand to customers frustrated at the slow re-booking process. Air New Zealand chief commercial and customer officer Cam Wallace said credit from an international flight can now be used on a domestic one and the credit can include another traveller. "We know this hasn't been quick to resolve, and we would like to thank our customers for their patience. Pre-Covid-19, we didn't have the systems in place for customers to redeem credits at this scale, so our teams have had to build this long-term solution from scratch," he said. "Customers now have more flexibility with using their credits, including the ability to use credit from an international flight to book a domestic one and vice versa, and for the credit owner to choose who the credit is used for. We've also extended the period in which customers can use their credit - they have until December 31, 2021, to book and a further 12 months after booking to travel." Currently the system has the capacity to deal only with single bookings but it is being extended.<br/>