Wizz Air said it will switch some of its planned expansion away from Britain because of the weakness in the pound following the vote to leave the EU. Wizz had been intending to grow its UK business by 30% -- equivalent to 4 extra planes in this financial year -- but said it would reduce this to 15% as a result of sterling's weakness against the euro. "This is a translation, FX issue, not underlying volume demand and or a change in consumer behaviour," Wizz Air CE Jozsef Varadi said. "We are a euro company, every (pound) sterling we earn in revenue translates into euros, and it is 19% less euro than what it was a year ago." The airline said it remained confident of meeting guidance given in May for net profit of between E245m and E255m in the financial year to the end of March, 2017. <br/>
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Air Astana reported a 2016 first-half net loss of US$6.6m, reversed from an $8.3m net profit in the first half of 2015. The airline said the results were driven by a significant devaluation of the Kazakh currency Tenge compared to the first half of 2015, and by weaker regional travel markets in the wake of a commodity price drop. The carrier reported a first-half operating profit of $0.975m; operating revenue fell 30% to $275m. Also passenger numbers decreased 7% to 1.69m, compared to 1.82m in the year-ago-period. Prospects for the rest of the year remain uncertain; however, there are signs that regional economies are adjusting to lower commodity prices. Air Astana recently launched flights between Almaty and Tehran, and will take delivery of its first Airbus 320neo later this year. <br/>
A national carbon tax that doesn’t take into account the unique challenges faced by airlines could irreparably harm Canada’s aviation industry, WestJet CE Gregg Saretsky warned Tuesday. “We’re obviously working closely with govt — they need to be very careful that they don’t kill an industry that is so important to economic growth,” Saretsky said. “It (a national price on carbon) needs to pass the reasonableness test.” Last week, federal environment minister Catherine McKenna said that the country will have a national price on carbon emissions by the end of 2016. In addition, Alberta’s carbon tax — set to take effect Jan 1, 2017 — will impose a 5.1 cent per litre levy (rising to 7.75 cents a litre in 2018) on jet fuel purchases for flights that originate and end within the province (i.e., Calgary to Edmonton). <br/>
Southwest Airlines flights across the country were held up Wednesday while the airline worked to fix technology problems. Southwest began having intermittent problems with several systems after an outage. "We are now managing flight delays across our system, with a temporary ground stop in place for those flights that have not left the gate," a spokesman said. For about 3 hours, visitors to Southwest.com couldn't buy tickets, check in for flights, or check their flight's status. The site appeared to be working again by late afternoon. Southwest said that systems were gradually coming back, but that it might take time before the airline could resume normal operations. By about 5 pm Central time, Southwest had canceled 16 flights, more than any other US carrier, and delayed 245 others. <br/>