Air Serbia and Hainan Airlines ink codeshare

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

SAA sold

South Africa agreed to sell a majority stake in the country’s grounded national carrier to a local jet-leasing company and private-equity firm, ridding the government of an entity that has long been a drain on state finances. A consortium comprised of Johannesburg-based Global Airways, which owns recently launched domestic airline Lift, and private-equity firm Harith General Partners will take a 51% shareholding in South African Airways (SAA), Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said. The government will retain a minority stake. The grouping named Takatso will invest as much as 3.5 billion rand ($258 million) over the next three years, Lift co-founder, Gidon Novick, and Harith Chief Executive Officer, Tshepo Mahloele, said in an interview. “Government will have no further financial obligations to the company, outside of the existing liabilities that they will settle”, Novick said. He added, “Route networks we are still working on, and it will be a phased roll-out based on demand re-emerging post Covid”. The sale of SAA comes about six weeks after the airline emerged from lengthy bankruptcy proceedings, having reduced its workforce by almost 80% and cut liabilities to about 2.6 billion rand. The next challenge is to resume international flights, though South Africa remains cut off from much of the world due to pandemic travel restrictions. A longer-term goal is to list the carrier on a stock exchange, Gordhan said. In the meantime, the government will retain special voting rights to ensure the airline remains in the country, among other national priorities. The deal represents a triumph of sorts for Gordhan, who has argued for the revival of SAA with the help of private investors while others were calling for it to be liquidated. While SAA is now “solvent and liquid,” business-rescue practitioners said when handing over the aircraft, subsidiaries including low cost arm Mango and maintenance firm SAA Technical remain under financial strain and are in the process of being recapitalized. The Department of Public Enterprises and the new consortium will together assess the future of the divisions as part of the due diliegence process, Gordhan said.
Source: Bloomberg

Air Serbia and Hainan Airlines ink codeshare

NEWS FLASH

Air Serbia and Hainan Airlines have concluded a mutual codeshare agreement, with the two carriers to exchange codes on each others' flights. Air Serbia will add its designator code and flight numbers onto its counterpart's service between Beijing and Belgrade, while Hainan will follow suit by placing its codes onto Air Serbia's regional services from Belgrade. However, the agreement must first be cleared by the China Civil Aviation Administration, which is notoriously slow in dealing with such matters. Air Serbia has seventeen codeshare partnerships in place. On flights to China, it currently codeshares on Air China's service between Beijing and Vienna.

Comments

Anonymous11:12
I can not believe... Finally!
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Nemjee11:18
This could be a sign of future non-stop flights to Belgrade (that continue to SJJ).
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Anonymous11:44
you didnt believe me ... HU 8120 is the codeshare flight Nr for JU's SKP-BEG ... its been listed for months on the airports site
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Anonymous13:03
I think that it was signed back in November
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Air Serbia and Hainan Airlines ink codeshare

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