South African Airways (SAA) has appointed John Lamola as its permanent group chief executive officer, following his successful tenure as interim CEO since May 2022. The carrier says the appointment is approved by transport minister Barbara Creecy after SAA achieved its first profitable year since 2012. Under Professor Lamola's interim leadership, SAA has expanded its operations, increasing its destination network from six to 16 locations and growing its fleet from six to 20 aircraft, including two Airbus A330s. The airline's workforce has also grown from 800 to approximately 2,000 employees, including 140 pilots. SAA board interim chairperson Derek Hanekom states: "The SAA board is delighted to be able to appoint a solid and dedicated leader well versed in SAA's fortunes and eager to continue overseeing its take-off into better skies." Professor Lamola brings substantial aviation industry experience, having previously served as chief executive at Denel Aviation and as a board member of Airports Company South Africa.

Australia's government has cleared the way for Qatar Airways Group to buy a 25% stake in Virgin Australia from its major shareholder Bain Capital. Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced on 27 February that the Foreign Investment Review Board had approved the proposed sale, which will see Qatar become a minority shareholder in the carrier, alongside majority shareholder Bain, plus two other minority shareholders in the Virgin Group and Queensland Investment Corporation. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The alliance between the two airlines has already received draft approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, with final approval expected by the end of April. Speaking during a press conference, Chalmers says that the approval comes with some "very strict, enforceable conditions", including that at least one of the two directors Qatar will appoint to Virgin's board must be an Australian citizen, as well as assurances to protect Australian jobs. Virgin says that the Qatar stake will provide it with "access to the scale and expertise of a world-leading global airline, strengthening its ability to compete domestically and internationally and driving increased competition in Australian aviation". Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka comments that the investment "sets us up for long-term success and adds fuel to our bold transformation agenda". As part of the deal between the two carriers, Virgin will start 28 flights per week from Sydney, Brisbane and Perth to Doha using aircraft wet-leased from Qatar in June, with Melbourne to be added from December. As part of the FIRB approval, Virgin has agreed to a three-year deadline to convert the wet-lease to a dry-lease arrangement. Virgin adds that under the wet-lease, its pilots and cabin crew will be given secondment opportunities with its partner airline, thus opening more opportunities for pilots in its core domestic and short haul operations. The deal has received broad support from airports, tourism organisations and other stakeholders. The Australian Airports Association welcomed the approval, with chief executive Simon Westaway commenting that it was "a major win for the aviation industry and the Australian flying public as it improves competition and connectivity".

ITA Airways' network will be linked with the other airlines of the Lufthansa Group through mutual codesharing. The group says over 100 new codeshare connections can be booked by both ITA Airways and the Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Air Dolomiti) for flight dates starting with the summer 2025 schedule. With the start of the summer flight schedule on 30 March, selected ITA Airways flights will also operate under a flight number of Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines or Brussels Airlines. These are both year-round, domestic Italian connecting flights from Rome-Fiumicino and international routes from Rome to Malta, Athens, Sofia and Tirana. Initially, this new codeshare offer with ITA Airways will cover flight routes within Europe. Once the codeshare program is fully implemented, ITA Airways passengers will be able to choose from over 250 destinations offered by the Lufthansa Group. "The integration of ITA Airways as part of the Lufthansa Group is progressing rapidly and now enables far-reaching advantages in the offering for our joint customers through code sharing," states chief commercial officer of Lufthansa Group, Dieter Vranckx.