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Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said many companies are interested in buying shares in TAP, the state-owned airline his minority government plans to privatize. The government is currently finishing a process of listening to all those who have demonstrated an interest in the carrier, Montenegro said on Tuesday night in an interview with television channel SIC. His administration is studying what’s the “best model” for the planned privatization, he said. Air France-KLM, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and IAG SA, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, have publicly stated their interest in TAP. The Lisbon-based airline’s biggest attraction lies in its links to Brazil, of which it’s the largest European provider. It also maintains a strong presence in Africa and operates a number of flights to North America.<br/>

Two Air New Zealand flights have been forced to turn back amid wild weather across the country. A Queenstown-bound jet returned to Auckland after the plane was struck by lightning on Wednesday morning. Scheduled to depart at 9:50am, flight NZ613 got as far as Taranaki before turning around, a map from flight tracking site Flightradar24 shows. Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer Captain David Morgan said the “challenging weather conditions” across Aotearoa were having an impact on flights. “Earlier this morning, NZ613 from Auckland to Queenstown encountered a lightning strike en-route,” he said. “Given the aircraft’s location and the availability of engineering support and spare aircraft, the decision was made for the flight to divert back to Auckland, where the aircraft landed safely.”<br/>