Australia's Regional Express is further extending the suspension of its domestic services and reduction of regional services up until 31 October. This is due to the current rate of Covid-19 infection, the announced intentions of the various state governments concerning lockdowns and border closures, and the need for lead time for advanced ticket sales, the operator said today in a disclosure to the Australian Securities Exchange. The stand-down period for staff will be extended up until this time, Rex says. On 1 September, the operator extended the stand-down of about 500 frontline workers while extending temporary schedule reductions until 10 October. The new date for the resumption of most services will coincide with the date when Rex’s customer-facing staff will be fully vaccinated, it says in today's statement. Rex has made it mandatory for its frontline, customer-facing staff to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by 1 November.

Restructured South African Airways has resumed flights, carrying out its first service since last year on the Johannesburg-Cape Town domestic route. SAA – which has been through a formal business restructuring process – was forced to suspend passenger flights in March 2020 when South Africa locked down to counter the pandemic. While it continued to operate cargo and repatriation flights, the carrier suspended all operations at the end of September 2020 as it sought to finalise a funding package. The carrier has since secured a government bailout to support its restructuring to enable it exit business rescue, which it had first entered before the pandemic in December 2019. New investors were identified in June this year, though the deal with the Takatso consortium is still to be finalised. In August the slimmed-down carrier regained its operating licence, enabling SAA to resume services. Alongside the thrice-weekly domestic link, SAA is also planning to start flights to five African capitals: Accra, Kinshasa, Harare, Lusaka and Maputo. SAA's interim chief executive Thomas Kgokolo states: "Our journey back to the skies has not been easy. We restart this business with a new vision of pride in the brand and one that has been inculcated into every staff member. "Our first order of business is to service our start-up routes efficiently and profitably and then look to expanding the network and growing our fleet, all depending on demand and market conditions." SAA chairman John Lamola says SAA's return will provide "more market equilibrium" in fares. "Since the carrier went into and then out of business rescue there has been less local capacity and that means tickets have become more expensive. Our return to the skies will mean more competitive pricing and will enable more South Africans to fly," he states. Kgokolo has previously said he expects SAA to resume operations with a fleet of around eight aircraft.

The US bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York has approved LATAM Airlines Group's latest request for an extension of time to submit its reorganisation plan. In late July the court had granted LATAM a similar extension to file its Chapter 11 restructuring plan. At the time, the Chile-based airline group was asked by the court to file its Chapter 11 plan by 15 September and seek acceptances of its plan by 8 November. The group had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the USA on 26 May 2020. LATAM on 9 September submitted to the US bankruptcy court a request for another extension of the exclusivity period to present its plan, which the court granted on 23 September. The group must now submit its reorganisation plan on 15 October. Earlier in September, LATAM had estimated that external creditor claims could peak at almost $10 billion amid its efforts secure financing to exit Chapter 11 restructuring and its negotiations with various stakeholders to formulate a reorganisation plan. Separately, the US bankruptcy court on 14 September approved Colombia flag carrier Avianca's disclosure statement describing the terms of its reorganisation plan. Avianca may now submit the plan to creditors for their approval. Avianca's next step on the road to emergence from Chapter 11 is to solicit votes on the reorganisation plan "from certain classes of creditors". Creditors' votes in support of the plan must be submitted to Avianca by 14 October. The US bankruptcy court will consider approval of Avianca's plan on 26 October.