Turkish Airlines Tuesday posted a massive loss as concerns over security in Turkey and the region took their toll on the ambitious airline. Turkish Airlines said its net loss in Q1 amounted to $421m, compared with a net profit of $153m in the same period last year. Sales were $2.188b, down 1.4% from Q1 last year, it added. "The political and economic instabilities... and increasing perceived global and regional risks in Turkey and Europe have a negative impact on aviation demand and placed additional pressure on yields in a seasonally low quarter," it said. Tourism to Turkey is down this year with a succession of attacks in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants hitting visitor numbers. But Turkish Airlines -- which is now the country's biggest exporter -- will despite the loss "continue to manage its healthy and profitable growth," the company promised.<br/>
star
Air New Zealand has been assessing a number of Chinese cities as potential destinations, including Chengdu, which is rumoured to become its next new route. The airline's Shanghai-based regional manager for Asia, Scott Carr, wouldn't confirm or deny speculation about a Chengdu service, but said: "There will probably be some news coming in the next couple of days about that." The Centre for Aviation reported last month that representatives of the carrier and New Zealand Government had met with Chengdu's vice-mayor to discuss a direct flight between the capital of the southwestern Sichuan province and Auckland. Should it go ahead, the route - at 10,505km - would be slightly longer than Auckland to Los Angeles, according to the report. Air New Zealand already has daily flights to Shanghai, while Air China operates a Beijing to Auckland service in alliance with the Kiwi carrier. In addition to Chengdu, Carr said Air New Zealand had been eyeing Chinese cities including Chongqing, Wuhan, Wenzhou and Shenzhen. "Clearly Chengdu is a massive catchment area and there is a lot going on there in the aviation space," he said.<br/>
United Continental, the largest carrier at Denver International Airport, on Monday reported traffic and capacity fell in April, as it grapples with travel cuts from oil-patch corporate customers, along with lower surcharges. The Chicago-based company reported a 0.9% decline in capacity in April along with a 1.9% decline in traffic, as measured by revenue-passenger miles. United still expects the key passenger-revenue metric, which measures how much a passenger pays to fly a mile, to fall in the range of 6.5% to 8.5% in Q2. The company had blamed the Q2 projected decline on soft April bookings, overcapacity in international routes and the stronger US dollar. Domestic traffic edged up 0.6%, while international traffic fell 3%, with declines across regions. Load factor, or percentage of seats filled, fell 0.9 percentage points in April to 80.5%. <br/>