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Jubilant SAA staff at the country's biggest airport broke into song and dance on Thursday as the airline took to the skies for the first time in around a year. State-owned SAA's longstanding financial woes were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and it halted all operations last September when it ran out of funds. The company exited administration in April thanks to another massive government bailout. It restarted domestic flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town on Thursday and next week will launch a slimmed-down international service to five African capitals: Accra, Kinshasa, Harare, Lusaka and Maputo. "After so many months we've been waiting for this moment, I am so excited. I am over the moon," Mapula Ramatswi, an SAA flight attendant said at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport. "I'm actually emotional the fact that it's happening today, we never thought it would happen." Ramatswi said the many months when SAA was grounded were difficult financially, but her family had helped her pull through. Her colleagues sang church songs, ululated, clapped and danced nearby as an SAA plane with its tail fin bearing the colours of the South African flag took off. The government has said it will sell a majority stake in SAA to a local consortium, and a due diligence process has been mostly completed. But the share purchase agreement has not yet been signed.<br/>

Dutch investigators have disclosed that an EasyJet Airbus A320 crew was forced to make an emergency stop to prevent a taxiing collision at Amsterdam Schiphol, after an SAS A320neo failed to give way at a junction. The EasyJet aircraft had landed on runway 18R and the SAS jet on the parallel 18C on 3 February 2019. After vacating, according to the Dutch Safety Board, the EasyJet A320 taxied rounded the southern end of 18C and headed north along taxiway Z, while the SAS jet was travelling south on taxiway B. As the aircraft converged on a junction – between taxiway links A26 and A27 – the SAS crew was instructed to give way to the EasyJet aircraft coming from the right on taxiway Z. The EasyJet crew was similarly informed that the other aircraft would wait for them to pass.<br/>

Air New Zealand will require more than half of its full-time staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19. In an email sent out on Thursday, chief people officer Nikki Dines​ said about 4000 of Air NZ’s 7840 full-time employees would be required to vaccinate under the new mandate. Air NZ proposed expanding its mandatory vaccination policy to all staff who interacted with customers and baggage at the start of the month. CE Greg Foran​ said the company did not take the decision lightly. “Our people have been on the frontline through the pandemic, helping Kiwis get home and keeping goods moving and, as a result, have a greater risk of coming into contact with Covid-19,” Foran​ said. Foran​ said that the emergence of the Delta variant had made previous health and safety protocols less effective. “Extensive PPE, isolation and testing have helped protect our people, but we need another layer of protection which the Covid-19 vaccines provide,” Foran​ said. Foran​ said that, before the announcement, Air NZ recieved substantive feedback from staff, but ultimately the only option was mandatory vaccination for the bulk of its staff.<br/>

It may have been a while since travellers have enjoyed a full meal on an international Air New Zealand flight, but the next time they travel afar the serving could look a bit different. The national carrier has been trialling a new more sustainable eco-serviceware, switching out the single-use plastic usually part of the meal packaging. The trial happened on recent services to the Cook Islands. In place of the usual plastic, containers made from bagasse and rotable plastic were used. Bagasse is an agricultural by-product made from plant fibre that is renewable and has a lower carbon footprint than traditional serviceware material. Rotable plastic is a product which can reused over and over again. Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty says the current serviceware is a decade old and needs a change up. “We’re on a journey to reduce the impact of our serviceware on the environment by moving away from single-use plastics and trialling more sustainable serviceware across some of our international flights.” Also, as part of the trial, plastic cutlery was replaced by a bamboo alternative. The airline believes 28 million single use plastic dishes and knives, forks and spoons could be removed from inflight every year.<br/>