Virgin Australia Friday posted a 37% fall in Q2 underlying earnings before taxes as tough conditions persisted in the domestic aviation market. The airline reported an underlying profit before tax of A$45.9m for the quarter ended Dec 30, compared with an underlying profit before tax of $73m a year earlier. On a statutory basis, including restructuring charges associated with a cost-savings program, it reported a profit before taxes of $13.1m. Q2 is typically the most profitable of the year for the airline. Virgin will report first-half results later this month. The figure released Friday indicates underlying earnings of $42.3m before tax, given it lost $3.6m in Q1. <br/>Virgin in November said it would "actively manage" capacity due to subdued conditions in the domestic market, where it competes against Qantas Airways. <br/>
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Tigerair has once again cancelled its flights between Australia and Bali due to approval "issues" with Indonesian authorities, throwing the plans of hundreds of holidaymakers into disarray. No flights between Australia and the Indonesian tourist destination would operate Friday, the airline announced just before midnight Thursday. The airline could not say whether flights from the weekend onwards would also be affected. The disruption comes just weeks after the airline was forced to ground its flights between Bali and Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne when the Indonesian govt imposed what the airline called "new administrative requirements". Tigerair has been flying to Bali since March 2016, but the airline has not yet been granted the necessary licence to fly its own aircraft on the routes. <br/>
Wizz Air is considering whether it should set up a UK AOC in the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the EU. “We are looking at a number of scenarios internally, including setting up a UK AOC if we have to,” Wizz Air CE Jozsef Varadi said. No decision has been made and the move will depend on the outcome of the UK’s EU exit negotiations. He said Wizz is “very bullish” about the prospects for the UK market and will still press ahead with 16% capacity growth. However, Wizz has been negatively affected as a result of exchange rate fluctuations between the pound and the euro following the Brexit vote. Varadi has downgraded Wizz’s earnings outlook, but said the airline’s low-cost base “remains robust,” putting it in a strong place as competition intensifies going into winter 2018-19. <br/>
EASA denied a report on Iraqi state TV Thursday that it had lifted a ban on Iraqi Airways entering European airspace. Iraqi State TV had earlier cited Iraq's transport minister Kadhim al-Hamami saying the agency had removed the airline from a European blacklist. "As far as EASA is aware, no update of this list has been performed since last December," a spokesman for the agency said. There was no one immediately available to comment from the ministry or the television station, which later stopped running the story in its news updates. The carrier was banned from flying to Europe in 2015 because it did not meet International Civil Aviation Organisation safety standards. <br/>
UTair Aviation carried 5.6m domestic passengers in 2016, up 25.5% year-over-year, according to the carrier. Overall, the airline carried a total of 6.6m passengers, up 20.1% YOY. UTair cited network development and frequencies increase, as well as a 2-point load factor rise to 71.9%, for the results. In 2016, UTair’s network exceeded 160 destinations. The airline expanded the number of routes in the south of the country and in Siberia. It launched flights from Novy Urengoy in the north part of Western Siberia to Tyumen and Moscow, and started one of its shortest services—Krasnodar-Sochi—and connected both of these cities with Yerevan (Armenia). In addition, UTair resumed Moscow-Minsk and Moscow-Baku flights, and added 45 new international destinations to the network as a result of interline agreements. <br/>
Icelandair is expecting to report a full-year EBITDA at the top end of its US$210-$220m revised guidance, but has warned that EBITDA will drop to $140-$150m in 2017 because of volatile market conditions. Updating the market Feb 2, Icelandair described 2016 as a good year that will “be close to the upper limit” of its guidance, but added there is increased uncertainty in the short term. Icelandair had originally predicted a $235-$245m EBITDA for 2016, but this was downgraded in July 2016. Looking to the coming year, the company warned of further stresses on the business. “The inflow of bookings at Icelandair has changed for the worse recently. Bookings have come in slower than anticipated and average airfares on the market have decreased more than forecasted,” the group said. <br/>