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Thai Airways International has been granted a one-month extension of the deadline to submit its rehabilitation plan which will outline how its business will be restructured. The flag carrier says in a Tuesday stock-exchange filing that it had been due to submit its plan by 2 January, but on 28 December its rehabilitation planners made a request to the Central Bankruptcy Court for a one-month extension, which the court has granted.<br/>That court had previously approved Thai’s rehabilitation petition on 14 September and appointed seven rehabilitation planners nominated by the airline. Then, the airline said that the next step following that approval was to prepare a rehabilitation plan. Under the new deadline, Thai must now submit its plan by 4 February. Since the airline first indicated that it would pursue a restructuring under business rehabilitation protection, market observers and those involved in the process had been warning of a protracted process relative to some other airline restructurings in the region. Thai Airways says in the latest filing that it asked for the extension because it needs more time to consider aspects including its “debt structure, capital structure, and organisational structure” to make sure creditors are satisfied enough with the plan to give it their thumbs up.<br/>

Air New Zealand is rehiring 40 redundant cabin crew, with hopes more will be recalled as the airline adapts to the Covid-19 pandemic. An airline spokeswoman said widebody crew had been called back to accommodate changes to its international schedule, which included new layover protocols for North American flights. The recalled crew were starting off on fixed term contracts “due to the rapidly evolving Covid situation overseas”, the spokeswoman said. “We hope to continue to recall widebody cabin crew as our operation adapts to new border requirements.” It is understood the crew had been made redundant and left the airline in early December only to get a call recently asking if they would return. Air New Zealand also recently recalled 175 short haul cabin crew in preparation for planned Tasman and Cook Islands bubbles. It’s also hiring regional cabin crew on fixed term contracts in four centres. The flurry of recruitment comes less than nine months after the airline let go of more than 4000 staff as it downsized by a third in an effort to survive the Covid-19 pandemic.<br/>