Alaska Airlines plans to start flying from Los Angeles International to Cuba in January despite an attempt by rival JetBlue Airways to hijack the route away from the carrier and leave Southern California travellers out in the cold. Alaska Airlines was one of 8 US carriers awarded routes to Cuba under the Obama administration’s efforts to open relations with the communist country. JetBlue was also awarded Cuban routes and has begun service from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But when Alaska asked the US DoT to allow the airline to postpone the start of its service by 37 days, JetBlue petitioned the agency to reallocate the route to JetBlue. JetBlue suggested that Alaska wants a delay because the LAX-to-Cuba route doesn’t have strong passenger demand, and requested that JetBlue take the slot to instead fly a new route from Boston to Cuba. <br/>
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CityJet is expecting to firm half of its 16 Sukhoi Superjet 100 options in 2018, after becoming the European launch operator of the type in June. CityJet is leasing 15 SSJs and has options on an additional 16. The airline received the first of these in June, the second in July and a third aircraft will be delivered over the next 2 weeks. After this, CityJet will take deliveries every 2 months, taking it to 8 aircraft by June 2017. “We will certainly look at our options in 2018. It is impossible to say how many we will go for, but I am reasonably confident that it will be 50% of our 16 options in that [2-year] timeframe,” CityJet executive chairman Pat Byrne said. He added that the exact number firmed will depend on how quickly CityJet’s business develops, particularly in wet lease. <br/>
Russia’s Nordwind Airlines has received approval for a Moscow-New York route. The carrier will replace Transaero Airlines, which went bankrupt in 2015. According to Russia’s federal air transport authority Rosaviatsia, the airline may perform up to 7X-weekly flights. In Oct 2015, Aeroflot Group received 56 out of 156 Transaero route designations, because Aeroflot had to carry most of Transaero’s passengers when the airline ceased operations. In April Aeroflot Group renounced 13 route designations, including Moscow-New York. Aeroflot said that it “wants to avoid dominating the market.” Nordwind Airlines started as a leisure charter company in 2008. In 2014 the airline announced it would enter the scheduled-flights market. Currently it performs scheduled flights at several domestic routes. <br/>
Philippine Airlines has signed a letter of intent to acquire “up to 12” Bombardier Q400 regional turboprops, the planemaker announced Oct 14. The aircraft will be the first in Bombardier’s new 2-class, high-density 86-seat configuration to enter service. The aircraft will have 10 “premium service” seats. Bombardier previously announced an 86-seat variant, but with a single-class cabin. "As Philippine Airlines looks to develop its domestic operations from secondary hubs and increase intra-island connectivity, the 86-seat Q400 aircraft…will increase the carrier's competitiveness by offering the lowest seat-mile and operating costs in the regional aircraft market," Bombardier’s VP sales, SE Asia and Australasia, François Cognard said. <br/>
Monarch Airlines is understood to have converted its order for Boeing 737 MAX8s into a sale-and-leaseback deal. The carrier, which Oct 12 announced it had received a GBP165m (US$203m) injection from majority shareholder Greybull Capital that allowed it to keep flying, placed the order for 30 MAX 8s, together with 15 options, in Oct 2014. The first is scheduled to be delivered in 2018. Neither Monarch nor Boeing would comment on modifications to the order, but Monarch has converted the purchase to a sale-and-leaseback arrangement involving a third party. Monarch CE Andrew Swaffield said the carrier has “had Boeing’s cooperation around restructuring certain aspects of our purchase agreement.” Doing so would ease financial pressures on the airline. <br/>