Portugal’s government reaffirmed it plans to privatize state-owned airline TAP SA, adding that the terms of the sale are still to be defined. “This is a phase of discretion, a phase of evaluations, consultations, definition of models and in due time we will bring to light our vision” for TAP, Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz said at a parliamentary hearing in Lisbon on Wednesday. “We’re worried but we also believe that the market today has the necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of liquidity, in terms of market dynamics for us to proceed.” Air France-KLM, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and IAG SA, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, have said they may be interested in TAP. The Lisbon-based airline’s biggest attraction lies in its links to Brazil, of which it’s the biggest European provider. It also maintains a strong presence in Africa and operates a number of flights to North America. The previous government said in September that it aimed to sell at least 51% of TAP. Pinto Luz on Wednesday declined to provide details about the terms of the airline’s privatization. “We won’t discuss beforehand what we haven’t yet defined,” Pinto Luz said.<br/>
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Eritrean authorities have suspended all flights by Ethiopian Airlines to the East African nation effective Sept. 30, the airline said on Wednesday. Flights from Ethiopia to Eritrea had resumed in 2018 after two decades, following a peace deal between the two neighbours that earned Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed a Nobel peace prize a year later. "Ethiopian Airlines has received a notice from the Eritrean Civil Aviation Authority through a letter... indicating the suspension of all Ethiopian Airlines flights to Eritrea, effective September 30, 2024," the airline said in a statement posted on its official Facebook page. "The specific reasons for this suspension have not been disclosed to us," it said. Eritrea Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hanna Atnafu, a spokesperson for the airline, told Reuters the flight suspension came as a surprise. "What is shocking and saddening to our airlines was just 15 days ago, on July 8, there was a letter sent to (us) requesting, to increase our weekly flight frequency from 10 flights to 15," Hanna said.<br/>