Welcome to Routes’ weekly look at how the Middle East and African aviation markets are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, helping you understand the schedule changes and manage the impact so we can navigate through this crisis together.
AirAsia is trialing a personal protective equipment (PPE) uniform for its cabin crew as the LCC group prepares for the resumption of flights in some markets.
The U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) granted Sun Country Airlines permission to cease flying to a large portion of its domestic network, while denying a similar request from Frontier Airlines.
Baltic carriers airBaltic and Nordica have each made progress with their COVID-19 crisis responses, with Latvia’s airBaltic approving a revised business plan and Estonia’s Nordic Aviation Group (Nordica) securing €30 million (€32 million) in state funding.
German leisure carrier Condor has secured a €550 million ($595 million) rescue package by the German government and the state of Hesse, ensuring the airline can survive a prolonged halt to regular flight operations in the coronavirus crisis.
Porter Airlines is pushing its planned operational restart back four weeks to June 29, citing the likelihood of continued coronavirus-related travel restrictions both within Canada and across the U.S. border.
Hungary’s Wizz Air plans to resume flights out of London Luton (LTN) and Vienna (VIE) from May 1 with new protocols put in place to help ensure the health and safety of passengers and crew.
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson has rejected media reports that he plans to sell UK long-haul carrier Virgin Atlantic, but the search for further investment continues.
The Dutch government plans to provide €2-4 billion ($2.2-4.4 billion) in COVID-19 crisis-related financial assistance to KLM, following on France’s pledged €7 billion to help Air France and the Air France-KLM group.
Norwegian Air Shuttle said it expects to remain grounded until April 2021 as it set out a debt-for-equity conversion plan to avoid running out of cash by mid-May.
Welcome to Routes’ look at how the North American aviation market is responding to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, helping you understand the schedule changes and manage the impact so we can navigate through this crisis together.
Wizz Air will restart operations from its Vienna base May 1 and is emerging from the crisis as a “structural winner,” according to the Central and Eastern European ULCC’s deputy CEO.
New LCC Air Arabia Abu Dhabi (AAAD), received its Air Operating Certificate (AOC) from the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) April 23, allowing it to start operating from the UAE capital.
Mexico City-based ULCC Volaris will cut capacity by 90% in May, as it braces for the COVID-19 pandemic to peak across Latin America in the coming weeks.
The French state will grant Air France-KLM a total of €7 billion ($7.6 billion) in loans to help it weather the COVID-19 crisis, and longer-term may consider increasing its stake, the Franco-Dutch airline group said April 24.
Aeromexico plans to slash its capacity by 80% in the 2020 second quarter (Q2) while working to convince Mexico’s government of the country’s airlines’ need for financial aid as credit markets tighten during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A few weeks ago, Aviation Week spoke with Airbus chief commercial officer Christian Scherer about the role of lessors. Scherer was still full of praise.
Alitalia will relaunch in June with a reduced fleet of around 90 aircraft, Italy’s economic development minister Stefano Patuanelli told a parliamentary hearing April 23.
Garuda Indonesia saw first quarter (Q1) 2020 revenue drop by 33% year-on-and year—and sharper declines are yet to come in April as COVID-19 restrictions within Indonesia tighten.
Air New Zealand is axing two of its long-haul routes and shelving plans for another as it becomes apparent that much of its widebody fleet will be parked well into next year.
With no end to the COVID-19 crisis in sight, Singapore Airlines (SIA) is flying four of its Airbus A380 and two of LCC subsidiary Scoot’s A320ceo to the Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage (APAS) facility in Alice Springs, Australia for long-term parking.
