IATA TALKS
SAA seeks to recover debt from Angola
State-owned South African Airways (SAA) may be a step closer to recovering a debt of about R1.5bn from Angola for ticket sales following talks between the International Air Travel Association (Iata) and the Angolan central bank and finance and transport ministries. SAA and TAAG Angola Airlines signed a code-share agreement earlier in January on their direct flights between Johannesburg and Luanda and Cape Town and Luanda, despite the long-overdue debt. SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said at the time that the repatriation of funds from Angola had nothing to do with SAA’s commercial decision because the airline saw value in expanding its relationship with TAAG. On Thursday, Tlali said some payments had been made towards defraying the debt. The Angolan authorities asked the Iata delegation to propose a plan for the repatriation of SAA’s and other airlines’ blocked funds, an Iata spokesman said. A similar intervention by Iata with Nigeria in 2016 had succeeded, the spokesman said. The matter...
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