Aviation Daily Roundup: October 8

Air Canada has cut sale/leaseback deals for nine of its in-service Boeing 737 MAXs, raising $365 million to help it weather the COVID-19 pandemic and adding flexibility to its future fleet plans.

Filipino LCC Cebu Pacific is looking to raise $500 million to weather the COVID-19 pandemic and position the airline in the “new normal.”

The reopening of South Africa’s borders after a lengthy lockdown triggered by the spread of COVID-19 has seen regional carrier Airlink restarting international services.

Germany’s newest airport Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt (BER) has received its operating permit and is now set to open on Oct. 31, nine years later than originally planned.

Beyond the glow of the flares sent up by desperate airlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, air navigation service providers (ANSPs) that generate revenue from the fees they charge are struggling too.

British LCC easyJet said it would make its first ever full-year loss and warned it expected to fly only around a quarter of the capacity that had been planned pre-pandemic over the winter because of travel restrictions in place in its markets.

Icelandair plans to sell three of its fleet of Boeing 757-200s to a U.S.-based aviation investment fund for conversion into freighters.

A concession agreement was signed Oct. 7 between the Indian state Uttar Pradesh and Zürich Airport (ZRH) operator Flughafen Zürich AG for the construction and operation of a new airport near India's capital city Delhi.

People are at far higher risk of being struck by lightning than of catching the novel coronavirus during a flight on a commercial airliner, the latest numbers on onboard transmissions seem to show.

Several U.S. Senate Republicans objected to a proposed standalone bill to approve $25 billion in additional airline payroll support, further complicating the path for a late-stage effort to restore tens of thousands of furloughed workers to payroll.