Spirit Airlines is making money in Dallas and has no plans to leave the market or markedly decrease capacity despite considerable fare compression, CEO Ben Baldanza said on July 24.
The union—which has staged 12 strikes since early 2014—is in principle offering cost concessions, productivity improvements, a pay-increase pause and a higher average retirement age.
The Franco-Dutch group has revised its capacity growth from 1.8% down to 0.9% for the second half of the year, CEO Alexandre de Juniac told analysts and journalists during Air France-KLM’s second-quarter and first-half earnings presentation on July 24.
“This is the highest-ever earnings in American’s history,” CEO Doug Parker told analysts during Amercan’s second-quarter earnings call on July 24, adding that the profits may be the highest “any airline has ever produced.”
Asiana Airlines and Korean Air both reduced service to China, Japan and other nations in June and July, as the MERS scare in South Korea affected tourism.
Alaska Airlines will add Hainan Airlines as a Mileage Plan partner on July 22, a move the Seattle-based carrier hopes will help it “appeal to our culture-savvy Northwest customers,” and ensure it more forcefully competes with Delta Air Lines’ global gateway in Seattle. Members of Alaska’s program may earn miles on Hainan flights immediately, but they will not be able to redeem miles for flights until later this year. By fall, the airlines say they’ll offer reciprocal elite-status benefits.
Following the July 21 announcement of a FedEx order for 50 767-300Fs and options on 50 more, the SF Express contract, if finalized, will further strengthen the 767 program,
The deal, which cemented an agreement announced at this year’s Paris Air Show, calls for deliveries to run from October 2017-September 2019, the airline says.
According to schedule data cited by the Airline Route website, Thai Airways will be ending its four weekly flights to Los Angeles via Seoul on Oct. 25.
Since Emirates added its second daily Seattle flight on July 1, Alaska has seen connecting-passenger flows of about 275 daily, with a peak day of 410 passengers.
The airline plans to retire two more Airbus A320s by the end of its financial year on March 31, although it will also put a parked A319 into operational service.
Europe’s second-largest LCC in passenger numbers had warned that unit revenue at constant currency would be 4% lower on the year-ago period, due to a more competitive operating environment and air traffic control strikes in France.
Yangtze River Express has not announced a date for beginning passenger flights, but this year is likely, since HNA Group airlines are adept at setting up new carriers, and in this case need only widen the business of one that is already flying.
Latvia’s flag carrier, airBaltic, is allowed to start scheduled and charter passenger, cargo and mail flights between the U.S. and the EU after being granted a foreign air carrier permit and route exemption authority by the U.S. Transportation Department. The airline does not intend to start operating transatlantic flights with its own metal, but plans to add its BT code to Uzbekistan Airways’ twice weekly Tashkent International-Riga-New York Kennedy service.
International market travel, driven by a long-awaited rebound in intra-Europe traffic, received a welcomed boost in May, but the premium share of loads continued to lag, IATA data show. “The key driver of the faster growth in international air travel is acceleration [in] the Europe market,” IATA noted. “In May, the market was up 5.1%, almost double the rate of growth seen year-to-date, supported by gains in business confidence. which confirm that the economic recovery is on track.”
The airline officially joined the Star Alliance on July 22, the latest step of its evolution from an air-taxi operator and regional airline to a major carrier.
