Tigerair has been given the tick of approval from the Indonesian govt to resume flights in and out of Bali from Feb 3. A Tigerair spokesperson said the airline had secured approval to use its Airbus A320, after the airline was forced to ground several of its flights when the govt made changes to its 'administrative requirements'. But the news isn't all good, with flights between Australia and Denpasar between Friday Jan 20 and Thursday Feb 2 cancelled indefinitely. In the meantime, Virgin Australia will continue to transport passengers who were scheduled during this period where possible. The airline also plans to resume the sale of these flights on or before Feb 3, after it was forced to pause their ticket-sales due to ongoing negotiations with the Indonesian govt. <br/>
unaligned
South African regional airline Airlink will acquire 3 Embraer E170s and 2 E190s from Embraer subsidiary ECC Leasing, as part of a wider plan to take 13 E-Jets in total. An Embraer spokesman confirmed that the aircraft have been sold, rather than leased, by ECC to Airlink. Independently owned Airlink will start to receive the aircraft in the first half of 2017, marking the type’s South African debut. “This is the beginning of the implementation of a well-planned growth and modernisation strategy for Airlink that includes replacing our current fleet of Avro RJ85s over the next three years. The strategy calls for a total of 13 E-Jets, and we are in the process of sourcing the balance of the fleet requirement—an additional 8 E190s—from the market,” Airlink CE Rodger Foster said. <br/>
Russia’s UTair Aviation forecasts it will carry 7m passengers in 2017, up 6.7% year-over-year. Load factor is projected to grow 2 percentage points to 72%. The carrier predicts the Russian airline market will deteriorate in 2017, citing traffic stagnation and fleet increases as main challenges. According to the carrier, it does not plan to add capacity this year, but expects to increase aircraft flight-hour utilisation by 8% owing to more effective aircraft handling between the flights, more intensive operations of regional aircraft, and new maintenance and repair services. The carrier will increase its network from 150 to 168 domestic and international routes. Ninety percent of flights will be scheduled while its charter flights segment will be developed as the result of a partnership with oil and gas companies. <br/>