South Africa's Comair announced late on Tuesday evening that it had to suspend all its kulula.com flights as well as the British Airways flights it operates under a licence agreement. The flights are suspended pending Comair successfully securing additional funding. The company’s business rescue practitioners have advised that the process to raise the necessary capital is in progress and that there is reason to believe funding may be secured. Once received, the airline will be able to recommence operations. British Airways (operated by Comair) and kulula.com ticket sales have also been suspended with immediate effect. "We deeply regret the inconvenience this suspension will cause our customers. We did everything we could to avoid it. Comair, the BRPs and the lenders are working all out to get the funding in place so that we can resume our normal flight schedule as soon as possible," says Comair CEO, Glenn Orsmond.

Oslo-based low-cost airline Norwegian has signed an agreement in principle with Boeing for 50, 737 Max 8's for delivery between 2025 and 2028, plus options on a further 30. The deal will mostly contribute towards the replacement of expired aircraft leases, enabling the company to swap out leased for owned aircraft while securing a "limited net increase" in its fleet size, it says. Completion of the agreement is subject to further negotiations that should be concluded by the end of June 2022. "The overall terms achieved are attractive for Norwegian, and the deal fits well with our long-term fleet strategy and route programme," states Geir Karlsen, Norwegian chief executive. "It will enable us to serve our customers with modern fuel-efficient aircraft with the latest technology, significantly reducing our carbon footprint. The deal will also strengthen the company's equity considerably, further solidifying Norwegian's financial position." A moderate expansion of the fleet with Norwegian's recently outlined vision for a return to operations outside of Scandinavia. Karlsen said at an industry event on 18 May that he expects to operate 90-100 aircraft "within the next two years", and even more beyond that. With a capacity of that size "we would have to consider [operating] outside the Nordics", having outgrown the region, he added. Although Norwegian currently flies to destinations across Europe, it does not have services that start or end outside Scandinavia. Karlsen says this was achievable with the carrier having completely restructured its cost base, abandoned long-haul and simplified its operations through the pandemic, action that helped the company post a small profit in 2021 despite the poor state of the travel market. Norwegian intends to fund the outstanding pre-delivery charges for the latest announcement through cash flow from current operations, with a "significant share" of the purchased aircraft being owned by the airline. It has previously ordered and then subsequently cancelled large numbers of aircraft from manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, reflecting its perilous financial position up to the recent restructuring. In June 2020, for example, the airline cancelled orders for 92 737 Max jets as it battled to stay afloat amid the pandemic.

Air China is planning to buy a controlling stake in Shandong Aviation Group, and thereby acquire control of Shandong Airlines. “The transaction is currently at negotiation stage and no due diligence, audit, valuation and other related works have been complete,” the carrier says in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. However, there is no assurance that the parties will enter into a definitive agreement or that the transaction will be implemented or finalised, it adds. Air China has a 49.4% stake in Shandong Aviation Group and is an associate of the airline. Air China has a 22.8% stake in Shandong Airlines, whereas Shandong Aviation Group has a 42% stake.