Emirates said Monday it was in the process of only a "modest restructuring," 2 months after it reported a 75% decline in half-year profits due to slower growth and increased competition. Gulf carriers who spent years rapidly expanding are under pressure to adapt to weaker markets, overcapacity and a stronger dollar. The restructuring at Emirates involves moving employees into new positions that has seen staff both promoted and demoted, a spokeswoman said, adding that a "very small number" of staff had been affected. "Where roles were impacted, full support has been given to explore redeployment opportunities within the organisation," the spokeswoman said. Sources familiar with the matter said in December Emirates had offered redundancies to staff working in its head-office in Dubai as part of a review of its workforce. <br/>
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Emirates Airline plans to start a second fifth-freedom service to the US in March. The new daily route will operate between Dubai and New York Newark via Athens, Greece. Emirates’ Dubai-Milan Malpensa-New York JFK route, which uses fifth-freedom rights contained in the US-UAE Open Skies agreement, is regarded by many in the industry as what prompted the US majors to start a campaign against Gulf carrier expansion. That campaign fell mostly quiet in 2016 after the Obama administration did not pursue any action. But the campaign may be resurrected with the new Trump administration and the Athens route could be a new leverage for the US majors and labour groups. The move marks a reversal of Clark’s previous position that Emirates would not begin any more fifth-freedom routes. In 2014. <br/>
Just 2 years ago, SpiceJet was on the brink of collapse. The airline looked on course to become the second in India to fail in as many years, after a cash crunch left it unable to pay even for fuel. But this month the carrier took a major step in its resurrection with a US$22b order for up to 205 new planes from Boeing — one of the country’s largest-ever deals for new aircraft. Ajay Singh, the airline’s founder, who stepped in to save SpiceJet in Dec 2014, says the order marks the “end of the era of turnaround” and the “beginning of a growth story” after a painful rebirth. But with fuel costs set to rise and competition fierce for cost-conscious passengers in India, analysts are sceptical about how the company will finance its growth. “Passenger growth is not enough to drive revenues" says one aviation analyst. <br/>
The Ministry of Finance, while expressing grave concern over rising debt of Pakistan International Airlines has urged authorities concerned to draft a comprehensible plan for the issuance of payments. The Ministry of Finance has also asked PIA’s authorities to release PKR2.20b for Saudi Civil Aviation Authority as the latter has threatened to put all flight operations for PIA to halt over unpaid dues. PIA is supposed to make payments worth PKR25b in term of loan and interest during the period of Jan 1-2017 to June 30-2017. The carrier owes a debt of PKR15.16b to the federal govt, PKR4.22b to non-govt organisations and PKR5.54b in terms of interest on loans. The overall loan volume of carrier has surpassed PKR185b during Nawaz regime in past 3 years. <br/>
Shareholders in FastJet have approved the sale of a 28% stake to Johannesburg-based Solenta Aviation Holdings. The company will now proceed, as planned, with the listing of 239m new shares Jan 24. Solenta will take 95.6m of the total and the remainder will be issued as a share placement. The transactions, which take FastJet to a total of 335.8m shares, are expected to generate gross proceeds of $28.8m. Solenta, which operates a fleet of 49 aircraft, is a commercial aviation group that holds 5 African air operator’s certificates and has strategic alliances, or AOCs pending, in a further 7 African countries. Under the agreement, Solenta will receive 95.6m FastJet shares and 2 board nominations. In return, Solenta will provide FastJet with 3 wet-leased aircraft and other services over the next 5 years. <br/>
Moves are underway to revive Belgian regional and charter operator VLM Airlines, which declared bankruptcy in June 2016. A group of Dutch and Hong Kong-based Canadian investors has set up a corporate vehicle, SHS Aviation, in the Netherlands in an attempt to restore the airline. VLM was based at Antwerp International and operated around a dozen Fokker 50 turboprops. It was the subject of a management buyout from CityJet in Oct 2014, a few months after the latter was, itself, bought out from the Air France-KLM Group. SHS Aviation has set up 2 subsidiaries: SHS Antwerp Aviation, which is handling VLM, while SHS Aviation Slovenia has become the owner of Maribor Airport. Dutch investors hold 60% of the airline company. This is essential, as EU rules state that an EU-based airline must have a majority shareholding from among EU nationals. <br/>