Thai Airways is seeking 10 billion baht ($300 million) in capital from the Thai government, leading a reluctant finance ministry to consider whether it should scale back its involvement in the carrier. Apparently dissatisfied with Thai Airways’ dependence on public funds and debt guarantees, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said his ministry is considering allowing greater private stock holdings in Thai Airways, which is majority-owned by the state and is restructuring its business and balance sheet after depleting its capital reserves.

Garuda Indonesia will probably defer until the third quarter a planned initial public offering of its shares intended to raise about $300 million to finance expansion. Global economic weakness is pushing the carrier to defer the share offering, which was originally planned in June, said minister for state-owned enterprises Mustafa Abubakar,

The Chinese government has decided to allocate to Air China 20 A320s that it ordered from Airbus two years ago. The government buys aircraft centrally through the China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group Corp. It said in November 2007 that it would buy 110 A320 family aircraft and 50 A330s, and Airbus formally booked the order in 2008, awaiting notification of the users. The allocation to Air China has been widely, but wrongly, reported as an order.