The Irish govt must maintain diplomatic pressure to ensure the US DoT grants a full permit for a transatlantic service from Cork as trade unions in the aviation sector are likely to lobby hard against any such move, a Cork councillor has said. Fianna Fáil councillor Tom O’Driscoll said the decision by the US department to issue what is known as a Show Cause Order to Norwegian Air International to operate a Cork -Boston flight was a positive development towards starting the service, but much work remains to be done. Cllr O’Driscoll said that he fully expected both trade unions and rival airlines to make a strong push during a 3 week submission period to try and persuade the department not to issue a full permit. <br/>
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Emirates is still planning for Panama to be its foothold into Latin America despite having twice deferred launching flights after it failed to gain approval from regional govts to code-share with a local airline. Emirates in March put its plans to set up a Panama hub connecting Latin American cities with Asia on hold after just 3 or 4 out of 13 South America govts approved codeshares with Copa Airlines. “We do not consider an alternative to Panama. We are still working on … this code-share agreement,” Thierry Antinori, Emirates executive VP and CCO, said Sunday. Panama would be Emirates’ fourth destination in Latin America after Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil and Buenos Aires in Argentina. Emirates has said it would now launch flights to Panama at the end of 2016 or in early 2017. <br/>
Flyadeal will operate a fleet of up to 50 narrow-bodied aircraft by 2020, Saleh Al Jasser, DG of Saudia, said Monday. Flyadeal, a subsidiary of Saudia’s holding company, was unveiled last week and will serve the destinations in the kingdom and the wider regional market. It will start operations in mid-2017. Saudia executives are currently deciding whether Flyadeal will operate either Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 aircraft. According to Al Jasser, a decision is expected in the coming weeks on whether aircraft from an existing Saudia order will be transferred to Flyadeal or an entirely new order will be placed. Al Jasser said all aircraft used by Flyadeal would be leased and that the airline will service cities that are within a 4-to-5 hour flying time from its Jeddah hub in western Saudi Arabia. <br/>
Juneyao Airlines reported a Q1 net profit of CNY454.2m (US$70m), up 70% over a net income of CNY266.5m in the year-ago quarter. Operating revenue rose 30.4% to CNY255.2m while operating expenses increased 30.6% to CNY179.2m. The carrier credited the “robust growth of market demand” as the main reason for the much-improved financial performance. Industry analysts also cited lower fuel prices and Shanghai’s high growth rate as more reasons for the carrier’s performance. Juneyao took up 8.65 share of Shanghai market in terms of passenger boardings. The carrier did not reveal traffic figures. For 2015, Juneyao reported a net profit of CNY1.05b ($161.3m), more than double its net income of CNY427.7m in 2014. <br/>
Volaris reported 2016 Q1 net income of MXP602m (US$34.4m), up 96.7% from a MXP306m profit in the year-ago period. The carrier reported increased passenger demand and lower fuel prices helped achieve the higher net numbers. “The strong passenger demand environment in Q1 of 2016, supported by seasonality, continued fuelling Volaris’ financial results and achieving record Q1 margins,” Volaris CE Enrique Beltranena said. Total operating revenue for Q1 was MXP5.18b, up 37.5%, while expenses increased 27% to MXP4.34b, producing an operating profit of MXP836m, up 141.6% from a MX346m in the prior-year quarter. Traffic rose 35.8% to 5.3b RPKs on a 27.9% increase in capacity to 6.2b ASKs, producing a load factor of 85%, up 5 points. <br/>