Star Alliance carrier SAS is to open a new Asian service, operating to the Thai capital Bangkok from the beginning of the winter season. SAS, which is currently under US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has been undergoing a restructuring programme to strengthen its financial position. It says it is aiming to accommodate an increased demand for leisure travel. SAS will operate three-times weekly from Copenhagen to Bangkok from 30 October. It will use 300-seat Airbus A350-900s on the route. “The Bangkok route will offer a perfect entry point for wider Thailand and be a great option for both business and leisure travellers,” says CE Anko van der Werff. SAS says the route will be seasonal, for the winter period, and its opening depends on obtaining governmental approval. Its Asian programme over the winter will also include the continuation of three-times weekly flights to Tokyo Haneda and Shanghai.<br/>
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Portugal's infrastructure minister submitted his resignation on Tuesday as a scandal around state-owned airline TAP widened, just four months after his predecessor resigned over the same issue, but the prime minister said he would keep him in the job. The Socialist Party, led by premier Antonio Costa, won an outright parliamentary majority in January 2022, but his government has been plagued by instability with more than 10 ministers and secretaries of state leaving their posts since. In a statement, minister Joao Galamba said he was resigning "for the sake of the necessary institutional tranquillity", adding it was crucial for him to reaffirm that his ministry had "never sought to hide any fact or document" about TAP. Shortly after, Costa said in a televised address that although the scandal had affected the government's image, he could not accept the resignation as he believed Galamba was "not responsible for any failure". The decision puts Costa on a collision course with conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has the power to dissolve parliament and has made clear he wants Galamba out. Galamba's predecessor, Pedro Nuno Santos, resigned in December in the wake of a scandal involving an irregular severance payment to a former executive board member of TAP. Opposition parties have claimed that Galamba concealed from parliament that he had proposed that then CEO Christine Ourmières-Widener meet Socialist lawmakers to prepare for her parliamentary hearing about her severance package. Ourmières-Widener has since been fired after an official inspection found that the severance was illegal. Galamba initially said the preparatory meeting was TAP's idea, but on Saturday he acknowledged it was he who had told Ourmières-Widener that, if she wanted, she could attend the meeting where his advisors would also be present.<br/>