United Airlines said it plans to hire around 300 pilots who were slated to join the company prior to the coronavirus pandemic, as U.S. carriers scramble to accommodate a surge in domestic leisure travel.
Pent-up demand for leisure travel and progress on distributing vaccines is speeding U.S. domestic air travel recovery, putting 2019’s traffic levels within reach by early 2022, Oliver Wyman projects.
Now that its merger with Air Canada has been terminated, Transat is examining various options to secure C$500 million ($398 million) in working capital necessary to support its operations in 2021.
Milan-based startup EGO Airways has operated its first scheduled flight, with plans to fill out a network of Italian domestic services and fly to Mediterranean holiday resorts over the coming months.
Despite near-term challenges, cargo operators and technology specialists are looking further ahead to solve the longer-term issues that will shape the sector.
Romania’s flag-carrier TAROM will see its fleet and personnel trimmed as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, while the country’s privately owned LCC Blue Air intends to expand as its delayed Boeing 737 MAX aircraft start to arrive.
Turkish cargo specialist MNG Airlines plans to acquire two Airbus A330P2F (passenger-to-freighter) conversions from Germany-based Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW).
Kenya Airways and its low-cost unit Jambojet have suspended several domestic services as the East African nation experiences its third wave of coronavirus cases.
In attempting to replicate Norwegian’s transatlantic strategy, Norse Atlantic may also end up reigniting the same political battles that caused so many headaches for Norwegian in recent years.
Although Korean Air expects significant synergy savings from its merger with Asiana Airlines, there will be no large-scale redundancies or near-term fleet cuts resulting from the integration.
Two contradictory plans have been announced by the UK government that mean international travel from England would be simultaneously permitted and illegal for a full six weeks.
Bamboo Airways’ European expansion ambitions have taken a step forward after the Vietnamese carrier was granted takeoff and landing slots at London Heathrow (LHR) to operate six flights per week from May.
Canadian ULCC Flair Airlines is expanding its network to include Montréal (YUL) from July as part of an ongoing strategy to stimulate domestic traffic.
Hydrogen propulsion pioneer ZeroAvia has secured an investment from British Airways (BA) and kicked off development of a fuel-cell power train for 50-seat-plus regional aircraft.
Air China and China Eastern Airlines both remained in the red for all four quarters of 2020, racking up annual net losses of CNY14.4 billion (£2.2 billion) and CNY11.8 billion respectively.
Despite recording a pandemic-driven CNY10.8 billion ($1.65 billion) net loss for 2020, China Southern Airlines is optimistic on the prospects for the aviation market in the longer term.
