South Africa’s government bails out state airliner SAA to avoid default

In Picture, South African Airways’s flight (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

South Africa’s government on Saturday said it had transferred an undisclosed amount to South African Airways for the state carrier to pay back loans of about 2.3 billion rands ($176 million) to lender Standard Chartered. This week the Treasury said that around 9 billion rands of debt were maturing at month-end, with around 6 or 7 lenders involved.