While U.S., European Union and UK sanctions mean that direct flights to and from Russia are off the table for carriers in those markets, for airlines based elsewhere, the picture is less clear cut.
Regional aircraft lessor Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) has secured court approval for its restructuring plan, placing the company on track to exit U.S. Chapter 11 proceedings before the end of May.
Turkey-based leisure and domestic carrier SunExpress, a joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, has resumed plans to build a five-bay hangar for its Boeing 737 fleet at Antalya Airport on Turkey’s southern coast.
Citing protracted border closures and lukewarm domestic travel for its decreased financial estimates, Japan Airlines (JAL) is forecasting a deeper loss for the 2021/22 financial year of ¥777 billion ($1.4 billion) against ¥146 billion previously estimated last November.
Auckland Airport is seeing a strong rebound in traffic from Australia following New Zealand’s latest border reopening move, and airlines are preparing to add more routes when travel resumes from other overseas markets.
European air traffic continued to edge higher in the week ending April 17, Eurocontrol statistics showed, with a 1.4% increase compared to the previous week.
Formalizing a relationship first announced at the Paris Air Show in 2019, U.S. regional airline Cape air has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Eviation Aircraft for the purchase of 72 Alice electric aircraft.
The world’s largest operator of Antonov An-124 superheavy freighters―Russia’s Volga-Dnepr Airlines―is trying to redesign its business model after Western markets closed to Russian carriers.
The Allied Pilots Association (APA) is suing American Airlines over what it says is an illegal change to the airline’s training protocols that would replace check pilots with line pilots during simulator evaluations when an additional pilot, or seat filler, is needed.
Icelandair will convert one of its passenger Boeing 767-300ERs into a freighter aircraft and will integrate an additional 767 which will also be converted for cargo operations.
ULCC Ryanair plans to undertake a five-year heavy maintenance agreement with Jordanian MRO provider Joramco, which will see the Ireland-based airline using up to six heavy maintenance bay slots at the maintainer’s facility in Amman.
While Cathay Pacific’s March statistics continued to reflect its dire predicament, April should see some degree of improvement as Hong Kong eases COVID-19 border restrictions.
The strong demand environment is reassuring for airline executives, but are their companies staffed to handle all those passengers? Recent operational meltdowns suffered by JetBlue Airways, Spirit Airlines and others suggest not.
Wizz Air expects to operate at least 30% more capacity between April and June that it did in 2019, as it sees summer bookings building significantly after the Easter break.
