SAS said it was seeing some signs of recovery in air travel as it reported a narrowing quarterly loss, but its new CEO warned it would take years for demand to return to pre-pandemic levels. The airline, part-owned by the governments of Sweden and Denmark, said it had been encouraged by a gradual increase in demand during the summer holiday season as vaccination drives gathered pace around the world. Yet CE Anko van der Werff said that while he expected continued demand for leisure flights, the shape of business travel was more uncertain. “September, October and November are really strong corporate months typically. Now it’s Sept. 1 and people are booking very late, very close to departure so we just have to wait and see a bit longer,” he said. He declined to give a specific prediction for when overall demand might fully recover from the COVID-19 crisis, though added: “2022 will be better than 2021, but it is in my view going to take years before you are back to 2019 levels.” That was a far more pessimistic outlook than SAS gave in December, when it said it expected demand in 2022 to reach levels “at least comparable” to those before the pandemic. The CEO was speaking after his airline reported losses before tax of 1.36b Swedish crowns ($157m) in its fiscal Q3 running from May through July, versus a 2.08b loss in the same period a year earlier.<br/>
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South Africa said the private group looking to take a majority stake in the country’s dormant national airline is close to completing due diligence ahead of a planned resumption of flights later this month. The Takatso consortium has yet to identify any material issues that would scupper the South African Airways deal, the Department of Public Enterprises said in a presentation to lawmakers on Wednesday. The group is made up of Johannesburg-based Global Airways, which owns new domestic airline Lift, and private-equity firm Harith General Partners. SAA said last week it will resume operations on Sept. 23, about 18 months after the fleet was grounded at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The carrier was already in a local form of bankruptcy protection at the time, though administrators handed control back to the board at the end of April this year. SAA’s various subsidiaries remain in financial difficulty, with low-cost carrier Mango having been placed into business rescue, according to the presentation. The government has allocated 2.7b rand ($186.6m) to support the units, which also include maintenance firm SAA Technical and catering group Air Chefs, though the majority of the funds have yet to be dispensed.<br/>
India is set to absolve bidders for its loss-making flag carrier from any liability arising out of a lawsuit filed by Cairn Energy, which has claimed the state-run airline’s assets over a long-running tax dispute with the government, according to people familiar with the matter. PM Narendra Modi’s administration will offer so-called indemnity to the financial bidders of Air India Ltd., which the government has repeatedly tried to sell without success, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is confidential. In the latest attempt, a group of bureaucrats cleared a final sale purchase agreement on Saturday, and that plan is likely to be approved by a group of ministers this week, they said. The government expects to receive financial bids by Sept. 15, junior Civil Aviation Minister VK Singh told parliament in July. Air India, unprofitable since a 2007 merger with state-owned domestic operator Indian Airlines Ltd, has total debt of 600b rupees ($8.2b) and loses 200m rupees every day, straining government finances even as the South Asian nation’s budget deficit widens. Potential bidders for the airline -- identified by local media as conglomerate Tata Group and the owner of local budget carrier SpiceJet -- may welcome any assurance from the government on not having to encounter any surprises on further liabilities. <br/>
Ten flights to Australia put on by Air NZ to enable stranded travellers to return home have sold out in under two hours. On Thursday morning Air NZ posted a travel alert on its website revealing it had been allocated spaces for mandatory isolation by the Australian Government, and would be operating a small number of flights. Flights were available from Auckland to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth on limited dates in September, and went on sale at 10am. However, just before midday, Air NZ posted an update to say the flights had sold out. Air NZ CEO Greg Foran said the airline had been allocated fewer than 250 spaces. ”We are committed to getting as many people home as we can, even if it means operating near-empty flights. On some flights, the allocations are as low as 12 spaces,” he said. ”Our heart goes out to those customers who have missed out.”<br/>