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Singapore Airlines Tuesday reported a 1.7% rise in Q3 operating profit, helped by an unexpected growth from cargo and mail, while net fuel costs fell. Profit reached S$293m for the three months ended Dec 31, S$5m up from the same period last year. The carrier, a barometer of the health of Asia's airline industry, said "2017 is expected to be another challenging year amid tepid global economic conditions and geopolitical concerns, alongside other market headwinds such as overcapacity and aggressive pricing by competitors". The company has come under pressure due to weakening demand for full-service long-haul travel amid competition from low-cost carriers and Middle Eastern network carriers. Operating profit in its main SIA brand fell 16.6% to S$151m. Profit fell 9.1% in its SilkAir regional airline, and was flat-to-slightly-higher for low-cost subsidiaries, Tiger Airways and Scoot. <br/>

Ethiopian Airlines' CE said Tuesday that a US order temporarily halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority states was creating confusion for passengers but was not having much impact overall on its operations. Tewolde Gebremariam also said the airline's revenue rose 10.3% to 54.5b birr ($2.43b) in the 2015/16 fiscal year, while passenger numbers climbed 18% to 7.6m. Net profit was up 70% at 6b birr. The state carrier is sub-Saharan Africa's biggest by revenue and has been rapidly expanding in its bid to become a global player through its increasingly crowded hub in Addis Ababa. The carrier wants to increase revenue to $10b by 2025, and expand its fleet to 140 aircraft from less than 90 now, with sights on Asia, Tewolde said. An Ethiopian official said last week that nine Yemenis were deported from America on an Ethiopian Airlines flight after President Donald Trump's travel ban that the White House says is vital for security but a US judge put on hold. Yemen, which lies a short distance from Ethiopia, and Somalia, which shares a land border, are among the seven nations on the list whose citizens are affected by the ban. "It is affecting air travel because people are nervous and confused. There is no clarity in the executive order," Tewolde said in an interview, adding it had led to a few cancellations and refunds by Ethiopian Airlines to passengers. But he added: "Operationally it has not created any disruption to us, either on our schedule or our customer service."<br/>

South African Airways said Tuesday it is the latest airline to cancel flights to Nigeria's capital, Abuja, during six weeks of renovations to its international airport runway starting March 8. Airlines have refused a government proposal to divert flights to northern Kaduna city and bus passengers the 250 km south to Abuja — a three-and-a-half-hour ride on a road notorious for accidents, hijackings and kidnappings. That proposal "would impact on aircraft availability and connectivity for our passengers," SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said. Officials say the runway of Abuja's Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport is in shocking disrepair and that attempts to fix it piecemeal since its lifespan ended 14 years ago have failed. An SAA plane was damaged on landing there in August. Nigerian officials have said it would be impossible to carry out the repairs at night to help minimize the massive disruption to government business and the country's ailing economy. British Airways, KLM, Air France and Lufthansa also have temporarily canceled flights to Abuja during the repairs. Flights to Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, continue. <br/>

The Trump administration's immigration policies are "damning and damaging" to the US, Oscar Munoz, the CE of United, said. Munoz, who is Mexican-American, made the comments during a wide-ranging interview with Business Insider last week. He talked about Trump's plan to build a wall on the US's southern border as well as his executive order temporarily barring immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries. Munoz also discussed how the executive order has created unwelcome complications for his company. Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has moved swiftly on a laundry list of campaign promises through a wave of executive orders. Perhaps most controversial among them is the 90-day ban on immigration, including refugees, from seven countries. "It was so sudden that you have people in the air, you have people out of the country, you have people connected back here that are just stranded," Munoz said. "So how do you tell somebody who lives in America … that they can’t come back. And so nobody thought through those things. I just wished and hoped that we could do it a little more thoughtfully." Munoz lamented the fact that his employees and others in the travel industry have been forced to deal with the day-to-day chaos created by the executive order. From his perspective, it's an order whose efficacy is debatable. On the business front, Munoz said he believes the uncertainty surrounding the administration's somewhat erratic behavior has had a direct effect on the airline in the form of reduced bookings to certain destinations. As the most prominent Mexican-American CEO in the US, Munoz is fundamentally opposed to the wall Trump has threatened to build along the Mexican border. "Clearly, on a visceral human front, I oppose any wall, anywhere, between any people — period," he said. But on a more practical level Munoz questions whether a wall would actually make for a safer border.<br/>