South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has authorised investigators to probe allegations of maladministration, corruption or unlawful conduct at South African Airways dating back to at least 2002. Ramaphosa’s order to refer the allegations to a special investigation unit has been disclosed in a declaration in the official government gazette. The declaration states that the airline or the South African state may have suffered losses, as a result of alleged practices, which could be recovered. No specific allegations are detailed in the document. Procurement and contracting of Airbus aircraft, as well as maintenance, are among the matters being referred to the investigation unit, the presidential declaration states. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Airbus. The in-depth authorisation covers the sourcing of services to support the implementation of the loss-making airline’s turnaround plan, and the scrutiny of any payments which were “not fair, competitive, transparent, equitable or cost-effective”.
Ramaphosa’s declaration – dated 20 December 2019, but published in the gazette on 31 January 2020 – also points to potential concerns of maladministration relating to travel rebate benefits, payments by the carrier to vendors, and other areas. South African Airways has been operating under business rescue while practitioners develop a business plan intended to assist the crippled airline’s recovery.

Source: Cirium

Iran Air is playing down an incident involving one of its Airbus A319s which ran into rough ground after landing at Kermanshah early on 1 February. The airline states that the aircraft – arriving as flight IR283 from Tehran Mehrabad at about 06:00 – did not veer off the runway, but says its nose-wheel travelled onto grass as the aircraft vacated. Iran Air attributes the incident to visibility being “reduced to a minimum” from a blizzard. Meteorological data from Kermanshah shows the visual range for runway 29 at 06:00 was down to 300m, with fog and snow showers. Video images circulating on social media, purporting to show the immediate aftermath, indicate passengers disembarked the A319 via airstairs. While there is no indication of serious damage, Iran Air says the twinjet will be inspected by engineers and undergo any necessary repairs. Cirium fleets data lists the aircraft involved (EP-IEQ) as a 2002 airframe powered by CFM International CFM56 engines, originally delivered to Air China and subsequently operated by carriers including Rossiya. It was one of three A319s of similar origin which were acquired as a batch by Iran Air last year.


Source: Cirium

Airlines continue to suspend international flight capacity to mainland China in the wake of the outbreak of the new coronavirus as the World Health Organisation (WHO) declares it an international public health emergency. Since the outbreak emerged earlier in January, a number of international carriers have acted to cancel flights. While these initially focused on the city at the source of outbreak, Wuhan, it has more recently spread to wider international flights network serving the Chinese mainland. Air France and KLM on 30 January become the latest European airlines to temporarily suspend scheduled flights The two carriers had already pulled some China flights - including Air France’s Wuhan service - but will now suspend their respective Beijing and Shanghai flights until 9 February. Turkish Airlines has also now announced that to “evaluate the situation” regarding the outbreak, it is suspending its flights to the Chinese cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Xi’an. Finnair had already cancelled its flights to Beijing Daxing and Nanjing following the suspension of group travel by the Chinese authorities - though it has retained its flights to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai - while British Airways and Lufthansa Group carriers suspended their flights to the Chinese mainland on 29 January. Likewise North American carriers have taken action. US majors American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have all cut back their capacity, while Air Canada has pulled its mainland China flights altogether. The WHO had initially stopped short of declaring the outbreak as a global public health emergency at a meeting on 22 January, though noted it would review the situation given its fast development. Now following a second meeting of its Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak, it declared on 30 January that the outbreak of the coronavirus in China constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. WHO says there have been 170 deaths so far from outbreak – which has now has 7,711 confirmed cases and more than 12,000 suspected cases It also says there are now 83 cases in 18 countries. Of these, only seven had no history of travel in China. Whilst crediting China for its strong action in working to limit the spread of the virus, the Emergency Committee judged that the outbreak now meets the criteria for a public health emergency of international concern.

Source: Cirium