Tigerair on Thursday posted a net profit of S$7.9m for Q4 ended Mar 31, 2016. In a media release, it said this is an improvement of S$26.7m compared to a year ago, when it posted a net loss of S$18.8m. The airline added that revenue increased by 4.1% - or S$7.1m - due to a higher load factor of 3.5 percentage points, while yields remained flat. Expenses for the quarter decreased 5.5% - or S$9.6m - mainly due to lower fuel costs, said Tigerair. For the full financial year, Tigerair said it recorded a net profit of S$0.3m, compared to the net loss of S$264.2m for FY2015. It added that revenue increased by 3.8% - or S$25.5m - due to a higher load factor of 1.2 percentage points, and higher yields of 2.9%. Expenses also decreased by 4% - or S$29m - mainly due to lower fuel costs and higher aircraft productivity, Tigerair said. This comes after the airline became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, which launched a takeover offer last year. <br/>
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A group of Gol Linhas Aereas SA’s bondholders views the Brazilian airline’s debt restructuring proposal as unfair and has hired US investment bank Houlihan Lokey to negotiate with the company, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The investor group, representing owners of more than 20% of Gol’s dollar notes, sees the plan as failing to provide equal treatment for all unsecured bondholders, the people said. They asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Creditors represented by Houlihan Lokey say the restructuring proposal protects local bondholders Banco do Brasil and Banco Bradesco, which will face no haircut, while handing out most of the losses to the owners of overseas notes, the people said. The group argues that the airline shouldn’t have used the market price of its bonds as a basis for bondholder haircuts, the people said. They also said the holders of perpetual bonds receive the worst treatment.<br/>
Hawaiian Airlines has asked US Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to immediately approve its application to provide split service between Honolulu, Kona and Haneda Airport in Tokyo. The airline had filed an application with the DoT in April, seeking authority to operate two nonstop routes between Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, and Hawai’i. In a motion filed Wednesday, Hawaiian Airlines pointed out that it was the only applicant for the single available night-time frequency to serve Haneda Airport that will be available to US airlines when a February 2016 agreement between the US government and Japan takes effect later this year. The Honolulu/Kona service would be the second Haneda route operated by Hawai‘i’s flagship airline, joining the successful Honolulu-Haneda daily service Hawaiian inaugurated in November 2010.<br/>
Malaysia-based AirAsia Group is looking to merge two of its regional subsidiaries—Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia—that could potentially use Thailand as the ASEAN regional headquarters for the group. An Indonesia AirAsia spokesperson would not reveal details of a potential merger, but said a study was being conducted into a potential merger of the two subsidiaries. “We will update the information later, but at the moment I cannot give a statement as [the project] is still under review,” he said. Indonesia AirAsia was listed in late 2015 as one of several carriers that contravened Indonesian Transportation Ministry (ITM) equity requirements, leading to reports of a potential merger with long-haul partner Indonesia AirAsia X to satisfy local regulations. Initial indications of the potential Thai merger came from Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak after a meeting with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Jatusripitak indicated that a merged AirAsia subsidiary could also move its listing to the Thai Stock Exchange. “They will likely merge … subsidiaries in Indonesia and Thailand, but could [still] continue to use a dual listing in both Malaysia and Thailand,” he added.<br/>