Air Canada said on Wednesday it would require all employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19, as the fast-spreading Delta variant drives an increase in infections. The move by Canada’s largest carrier was in line with a government mandate that workers in the transportation sector be vaccinated by the end of October and follows similar moves by other major companies, including United Airlines. Workers who are not vaccinated by Oct. 30 will face termination or be sent on unpaid leave, Air Canada said. It has also made full vaccination a condition of employment for new employees. However, the carrier will accommodate workers who cannot be vaccinated for reasons such as medical conditions.<br/>
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Lufthansa will require the crew on its planes to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, the airline said on Wednesday. Lufthansa will negotiate an agreement to this end with staff representatives, a spokesperson said, confirming an earlier report by Spiegel magazine. "International flight operations will not be feasible in the future without coronavirus vaccination for aircraft crews," the spokesperson said.bLufthansa's subsidiary Swiss will introduce the vaccination requirement from mid-November, as Swiss contracts already allow for that, while Lufthansa itself will have to first reach an agreement with staff representatives. At its Austrian subsidiary Austrian Airlines, about nine out of 10 employees have already been vaccinated.<br/>
South African Airways, which was recently privatised in an effort to save the cash-strapped carrier, announced on Wednesday it would take to the skies again in September. The carrier survived for years on state bailouts and was abandoning routes even before the Covid-19 pandemic forced it to halt operations. "In just under a month, the striking and familiar livery of SAA will once again be visible in the skies as the airline resumes operations," the airline said. It said the first flights will take off on September 23. At the beginning, SAA said it will operate domestic flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town, as well as serve African destinations Accra, Kinshasa, Harare, Lusaka and Maputo. "More destinations will be added to the route network as it ramps up operations in response to market conditions," it added. In June the South African government sold a 51% stake in SAA to a consortium that includes the owner of a recently launched local budget airline, LIFT. The sale followed a state bailout of more than $500m and a restructuring of its debt.<br/>
Air New Zealand has announced a loss before other significant items and taxation of $440m for the year to June 30 – its first full 12-month period of operation with Covid-19 related international travel restrictions. Using the same metric, the company reported an $87m loss for the 2020 financial year. Statutory losses before taxation, which include a $29m gain from other significant items, were $411m, compared to a loss of $628m last year. This year's result is within analysts' forecasts and aligns with market guidance the airline gave. Within that period the last financial year the airline benefited from about $450m of Government assistance including airfreight support schemes as well as further subsidies and initiatives that are not expected to be repeated to the same extent in the 2022 financial year. Cargo revenue was up 71% on the prior year. It says the latest domestic nationwide lockdown was expected to negatively impact financial operating performance after a strong domestic recovery in the past 15 months. That part of the business had recovered to over 90% of pre-Covid levels but has largely been shut down in alert level 4 with only essential workers able to travel on a handful of flights a day.<br/>