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South Africa’s government will place the national airline under a local form of bankruptcy protection as a last-ditch measure to try and prevent its total collapse, Bloomberg News reported. State-owned South African Airways is entering a business-rescue process to allow a “radical restructuring” under which the carrier will receive 4 billion rand ($274 million) in funding, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said. The process will allow SAA to continue operating. SAA, which last made a profit in 2011 and has received 57 billion rand in bailouts since 1994, has been struggling to pay its bills after the National Treasury balked at providing it with more funding. Its finances took a further hit when staff staged a pay strike last month, grounding a number of flights and causing bookings to be canceled on a number of others. South Africa’s Companies Act enables firms in financial distress to file for business rescue. If granted, a business-rescue practitioner is appointed to help the company reorganize and assess whether it can be turned around. Companies in the process of being rehabilitated are protected from liquidation and legal proceedings, enabling them to keep trading.

A Maitland, Fla.-based airline has filed for bankruptcy protection after a series of business moves did not allow its operations to restart, the Orlando Business Journal reported. Via Airlines Inc. made the voluntary chapter 11 filing in Florida Middle District Bankruptcy Court on Oct. 8. The company cited both a pilot shortage that reduced business volume and shut down its business last May, as well as a July 2019 deal in which Atlanta-based Ashley Air LLC agreed to buy Via Airlines and infuse it with capital to stabilize it, but Via claimed Ashley Air did not fulfill its financial duties, according to the filing. Via Airlines claimed that Ashley Air, headed up by CEO John Ashley, misrepresented its "financial wherewithal," which led to Via defaulting on payments to secured creditors, unpaid rent on airport hangars and the Internal Revenue Service not being paid owed taxes. Via Airlines also claimed that Ashley Air didn't pay employees' wages and didn't reimburse passengers for canceled flights.

International airline bankruptcies have increased this year at the fastest ever rate, led by the collapse of India’s Jet Airways, British travel group Thomas Cook and Avianca of Brazil, according to industry data published on Friday, Reuters reported. “2019 has seen the fastest growth in airline failure in history,” said airline consulting firm IBA, which has tracked plane fleets returned to lessors or administrators by 17 carriers that have gone bust so far this year. More may follow as weaker players are squeezed by low-cost competition and higher fuel costs exacerbated by a strong dollar — which hurts those selling tickets in euros or pounds and buying kerosene and planes in the U.S. currency. The run of bankruptcies has also created opportunities for stronger carriers to pick up planes, traffic and airport slots abandoned by collapsed rivals. Other airlines that have folded in 2019 include France’s Aigle Azur and XL Airways, Germania, Flybmi and Adria of Slovenia, which filed for bankruptcy this week.

The European Union antitrust regulator said yesterday that it was in close contact with the German authorities regarding a proposed loan to German airline Condor, Reuters reported. “The Commission is in close and constructive contacts with the German authorities regarding the proposed loan to Condor,” a spokeswoman for the EU executive commission said. The German government said on Tuesday it would guarantee a 380 million euro ($418 million) bridging loan for Condor to keep it flying. Condor and Thomas Cook GmbH, the second-biggest tour operator in Germany after TUI, are both independent units of insolvent British parent company Thomas Cook.

India’s bankruptcy court, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), yesterday accepted an insolvency petition against Jet Airways Ltd filed by its creditors as they attempt to recover some of their dues, Reuters reported. The insolvency process will allow lenders to sell the company as a whole or in parts, laying out a fixed timeline for a resolution around its future. Jet Airways, once India’s biggest private carrier, stopped flying in April after running out of cash, leaving thousands without jobs and pushing up air fares across the country. The tribunal urged resolution professionals to try and finish the process in three months, and submit fortnightly progress reports, saying that the matter was of national importance.

Jet Airways’ creditors said yesterday that they plan to begin insolvency proceedings against the Indian airline in a last-ditch bid to find a buyer for the carrier or its remaining assets and recover some of what they are owed, Reuters reported. Once India’s biggest private carrier, Jet Airways stopped flying in April after running out of cash, leaving thousands without jobs and pushing up air fares across the country. “Lenders have decided to seek resolution under IBC since only a conditional bid was received,” they said in a statement, referring to India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. This process will allow Jet’s lenders, led by State Bank of India, to sell the company as a whole or sell its assets piecemeal to maximize recovery for creditors and bring to an end weeks of uncertainty over the airline’s future. Jet and its lenders have been searching for new investors but have failed to agree a proposal.

Tamarack Aerospace, the company under investigation following incidents involving aircraft it had modified, filed for chapter 11 protection earlier this month, Flying Magazine reported. The company, based in Sandpoint, Idaho, cited recent airworthiness directives issued by the FAA and EASA that had “effectively grounded” those Citation CJ1s, CJ2s, CJ3s and M2s equipped with its proprietary Atlas winglets. The winglets had promised to improve range, speed, and fuel efficiency for the Citation-series jets at a lower installed weight. The winglets came under scrutiny following several upset incidents in which pilots had to struggle to return to positive control. EASA issued its AD on April 19, stating, "Recently, occurrences have been reported in which Atlas appears to have malfunctioned, causing upset events where, in some cases, the pilots had difficulty to recover the aeroplane to safe flight." In the United States, the FAA issued its corresponding AD on May 24. While the EASA directive offered a temporary mitigation path involving use of speed tape to the secure the tabs, the FAA reasoned this was unacceptable, and grounded the jets in question outside of ferry flights.