South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has refuted reports in the local press claiming the carrier had walked out of a strategic partnership agreement with Emirates (EK, Dubai International) at the eleventh hour.

Late last month, South Africa's Times newspaper claimed SAA executives had failed to pitch up for the signing of an expanded code-share agreement with the Dubai-based carrier. Emirates president, Tim Clark, was reportedly to have signed on his airline's behalf at the ceremony which was to have been held in Paris.

However an SAA spokesman has rejected the report claiming that the two carriers are still in negotiations.

“While the conversation is ongoing between management of SAA and Emirates within the context of the existing relationship, and the scope of the conversation between the two carriers is well within positive territory, circumstance has thus far not allowed for finality,” Tlali Tlali told the UAE's National newspaper.

Though the Times report had implied a possible breakdown in the relationship between the South Africans and the Emiratis over the incident, Tlali reaffirmed his airline's belief that their "longstanding friendship and conversation" with Emirates would continue.

Under the terms of their existing agreement, SAA codeshares with Emirates on the latter's 3x daily Dubai International-Johannesburg O.R. Tambo service as well as on its 2x daily Dubai-Cape Town International and once daily Dubai-Durban King Shaka flights.

Meanwhile, SAA this week confirmed it is now in the process of implementing its Long-Term Turnaround Strategy (LTTS). The loss-making carrier says the restructuring program will result in approximately ZAR1.25 billion (USD102.77 million) in annualised EBITDA improvements for its current Financial Year which ends on March 31, 2016.