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Scandinavia’s biggest airline SAS AB has received a final round of bids from potential suitors looking to invest in the carrier as part of a rescue plan to shore up its ailing finances. The Stockholm-based company, which is going through a Chapter 11 reorganization in the US, needs to raise at least 9.5b Swedish kronor ($856m) in new equity and convert or cut its debt pile of about 20b kronor. CEO Anko van der Werff has previously said the amount of equity is not set and could go higher. Shares in SAS fell as much as 13% in Stockholm on Tuesday, giving the company a market value of just $183m. The airline warned in April that there would be no value in its existing shares at the end of the restructuring. The governments of Denmark and Sweden each own a 21.8% stake in SAS, but only Denmark has said it’s open to adding to its holding. Sweden indicated it will accept a conversion of debt it is owed into equity, but that it will not participate in a new capital raise. Norway’s government said it won’t contribute any new equity. Other possible bidders include US-based Apollo Global Management Inc., which provided the company with a $700m debtor-in-possession term loan as part of the Chapter 11 process. Earlier this year, media in Denmark reported that SAS would probably delist its shares since Apollo hoped to take a 70% stake in the airline, with the Danish state taking the remaining 30%. “SAS will announce the winning bidder or bidders as soon as the evaluation process has been completed,” the carrier said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to an equity solicitation process that closed on Sept. 25.<br/>

Scandinavian airline SAS said on Tuesday it made a net loss of 4.41b Swedish crowns ($398m) for the November through August period. <br/>

Turkish Airlines’ plans to begin flights to Melbourne in December have been scuppered by the Australian Government, with the airline saying it has still not received a response to its application to the federal Transport Minister and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. It now appears the Star Alliance carrier won’t be in a position to start its long-awaited flights connecting Istanbul and Australia until early 2024. “We are still to this day expecting a reply,” Turkish Airlines’ Australian manager Ahmet Halid Kutluoglu told a Senate committee into air service agreements this morning, as first reported in The Australian. Kutluoglu said it had been 45 days since the airline lodged its plans to begin flying to Australia, with Melbourne as the first port of call and Sydney to follow, and the delay left the carrier unable to launch Istanbul-Melbourne flights in December as it had hoped. "Our first plan was to start in December ... now it doesn't seem possible. It's important to have a quick response because in aviation everything is about planning. We need to allocate aircraft for the season but if you don’t have a certain starting date you have to allocate the aircraft elsewhere, you can’t pull it back," he explained.<br/>

The deadly bombing of an Air India flight in 1985 is back in the news after relations between India and Canada hit a new low. Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was investigating "credible allegations" that could link the Indian government to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia. India has denied the allegations, calling them "absurd". Since then, several commentators in India have brought up the 1985 attack - also known as the "Kanishka bombing" because the Boeing 747 was named after the Emperor Kanishka - which also strained Delhi-Ottawa ties. On 23 June 1985, an Air India flight travelling from Canada to India via London, exploded off the Irish coast, killing all 329 people on board. The cause was a bomb in a suitcase that was transferred to the flight even though the ticket holder had not boarded. The victims included 268 Canadian citizens, mostly of Indian origin, and 24 Indians. Only 131 bodies were retrieved from the sea. While the flight was still in the air, another explosion at Tokyo's Narita airport killed two Japanese baggage handlers. Investigators later said that this bomb was linked to the attack on Flight 182 and intended for another Air India flight to Bangkok but it exploded prematurely.<br/>

THAI is planning to serve more international destinations in the coming high season in an effort to attract more tourists. The flag carrier is also planning to resume flights to Istanbul in Turkey, which is an important aviation gateway to Asia, Europe and Africa. The service was discontinued back in 1994. According to CEO Chai Eamsiri, the decision followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between THAI and Turkish Airlines earlier in August. THAI will operate a daily flight to Istanbul starting in December. Flight TG900, which will be served by an Airbus A350-900, will depart Suvarnabhumi airport at 11.45pm and arrive in Istanbul at 6.05am local time. "Next, THAI will launch new flights to Oslo in Norway, Milan in Italy, and Sydney and Perth in Australia," said Chai. He said the flag carrier's cabin load factor on flights from China is expected to jump by 75% in the fourth quarter because of the visa-exemption scheme for Chinese citizens, which will bring in 240m baht in revenues per month during the visa-free period. The visa exemption scheme, which will be in effect until Feb 29 next year, has resulted in a surge of reservations on Chinese travel booking platforms, such as Ctrip and Tuniu. To accommodate the influx, THAI plans to operate daily flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kunming and Chengdu, Chai said. THAI is also planning to operate daily flights to Sapporo, Fukuoka, increase Tokyo services to 28 per week, up from 21, and launch charter flights to Sendai.<br/>

Korean Air has accepted most of the conditions imposed by EC regulators to secure approval for its proposed merger with Asiana Airlines, and it will formally submit an amended application to Brussels on September 27 accepting those conditions, Yonhap News Agency reported. The conditions include selling Asiana's profitable cargo arm, exiting certain routes between South Korea and the European Union, and giving up slots at some EU airports. The routes that Korean Air or Asiana have proposed dropping include Seoul Incheon - Rome Fiumicino; Seoul Incheon - Paris CDG; Seoul Incheon - Frankfurt International; and Seoul Incheon - Barcelona El Prat. Korean Air and Asiana have a combined 60.06% market share (measured by seat capacity) on the Frankfurt route, which they share with Air Premia and Lufthansa. They have a combined 67.01% market share on the Paris route with Air France taking the remainder. On the Barcelona route, the two carriers have a combined 76.2% market share, with Air Premia, another Korean operator, taking the remaining 23.8%. Korean Air and Asiana are the only operators on the Seoul - Rome route. Korean Air has previously demonstrated a willingness to surrender routes and slot pairs to get merger permission. It handed over seven slot pairs on Seoul - London Heathrow earlier this year to Virgin Atlantic to secure approval from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority and gave up 46 slot pairs across multiple airports in mainland China to get the green light from that country's competition regulator. There are also reports the airline has offered to surrender slot pairs at San Francisco, CA and New York JFK to get the support of US antitrust authorities.<br/>

Air New Zealand customers are now able to track their luggage using the airline’s app, as airlines and airports prepare to avoid another ‘bagmageddon’ over the busy summer travel season. The new feature, which has been trialled by 8000 customers, will enable both domestic and international travellers to track their bag’s journey from the bag drop to its (hopeful) arrival at its destination. Mishandled baggage was a major issue last summer, with hundreds of lost and unclaimed bags piling up at Auckland Airport. Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said the feature was inspired by customer feedback.“We’re always listening to our customers to understand how we can make their journey with us as smooth as possible,” she said. “We heard from them that being able to track their bags’ location would make their experience even more stress-free, so we quickly began making that customer request a reality.” Geraghty said the feature had received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the customers who took part in the pilot, which launched in April. Twenty-five percent of domestic customers participated, and 5% of international customers.<br/>