Aviation Daily Roundup: July 15

In a move to promote tourism spending in Bali, Garuda Indonesia is exploring new long-haul flights from the resort island to Europe, India and the U.S. even though the routes would be unprofitable ones.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has canceled a planned meeting with its bond- and note-holders, after they indicated they would not grant an approval needed for the airline’s turnaround plan.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) is eliminating 500 positions, or 27% of its potential workforce, to cope with reduced traffic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Airlines are considering the flexibility of introducing a new fleet of smaller regional aircraft as they juggle diminishing passenger demand, cost per seat and falling capacity, Embraer VP of Asia-Pacific Cesar Pereira has said.

Calgary-based WestJet will grow capacity by 10% in August from July, although its overall schedule will be just a quarter of 2019’s level, illustrating the magnitude of cuts made across its network during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regulators have banned the use of Dupont’s Kathon FP 1.5 biocide in Boeing 737 MAXs, the first of what is likely to be a series of mandates to protect fuel systems from in-service incidents linked to the anti-microbial fuel system additive.

The Austrian government has expanded its landing ban to cover aircraft originating from 18 nations, up from the previous nine, after noting rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in certain countries.

Passur Aerospace will integrate satellite-based aircraft tracking data from Aireon into its airline and airport operations management platform, the companies announced on July 14.

Etihad Airways and Air Arabia’s new joint-venture (JV) carrier Air Arabia Abu Dhabi performed its inaugural flight July 14, from Abu Dhabi to Alexandria, Egypt.

Swiss regional carrier Helvetic Airways has signed a commitment with Embraer to convert four of its remaining firm E190-E2 orders to the larger E195-E2 variant.

Business-rescue practitioners overseeing South African Airways (SAA) have secured creditor backing for their much-delayed business-rescue plan, with SAA chief commercial officer Phillip Saunders named as interim CEO.