A major travel agency in South Africa has said it will stop selling tickets for the troubled state-owned airline, South African Airways (SAA), because a travel insurance company will no longer cover the costs if the airline goes into insolvency.

SAA has suffered cumulative losses of more than $2bn (£1.5bn) over the past 13 years and has not made a profit since 2011.

Commercial banks are willing to give SAA a loan but they require the government to guarantee that it will be repaid. Ministers are due to decide whether it can provide that guarantee.

Travel agency Flight Centre said in a letter to clients that its insurance company could not cover the ticket costs “due to doubts concerning the long-term viability of the airline”, Reuters news agency quotes it as saying.

Flight Centre said it would continue with this policy “until such time as we have obtained certainty in the market”.