Norwegian Air is lobbying its government to scrap a deal which prevents it from flying the "Siberian Corridor" over Russia, the shortest route between Scandinavia and Asia. Russia only allows one airline per country to use its airspace and under the terms of a 1956 Soviet-era deal with Denmark, Norway and Sweden only Scandinavian Airlines and Aeroflot can fly the route. Since Scandinavia is three countries and SAS, which is partly owned by all three, only flies direct to Asia from Denmark and Sweden, Norway should rework the deal, Norwegian Air argues. Europe's third-largest budget airline by passenger numbers after Ryanair and EasyJet has to take a longer, more expensive route for its flights to Thailand. Now Norwegian Air wants to fly elsewhere in Asia and its executives met Norway's foreign minister Boerge Brende on Tuesday to see if the deal could be replaced. "We have our planes ready to go and we want to start flying these direct routes to Asia as soon as possible, but we can't because of this incredibly outdated deal," its spokeswoman said. "Most of these Asian routes will never happen if we are not allowed to fly over Siberia. It would be so much more expensive that we haven't even bothered to do the maths." Norway's transport ministry said it plans to bring up the case during the first half of 2017.<br/>
unaligned
Nigeria's Arik Air is in receivership due to its inability to pay workers and creditors, prompting the government to take control of the country's biggest airline, state-owned "bad bank" AMCON said Thursday. Arik, which was founded a decade ago and is now west Africa's biggest carrier by passenger numbers, has struggled with debt amid a currency crisis in Nigeria, as customers are invoiced in naira but fuel suppliers are paid in dollars. In 2012, a central bank document showed Arik owed 85 billion naira ($279m) to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), set up by the state in 2010 to stem a financial crisis. AMCON had taken on more than 132 billion naira of debts from 12 Nigerian airlines, including Arik. "Arik Airline has been in a precarious situation largely attributable to its heavy financial debt burden, bad corporate governance ... that required immediate intervention," AMCON said. Arik declined to comment. The airline, which handles more than half of domestic air traffic in Nigeria, flies across Africa's most populous nation and to London, New York and Johannesburg. AMCON said Arik had temporarily suspended its operation to New York and grounded more than eight other planes, adding that the airline had also suffered from non-payment of leases. AMCON said it had appointed a new team to manage Arik, supervised by a receivership manager.<br/>
Vietnamese budget airline VietJet Air is preparing to list on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange at a starting price of 90,000 dong per share, it said a filing to the exchange today, valuing the company at US$1.19bn VietJet, Vietnam's biggest private airline, did not state a precise date for the listing but it had planned to join the exchange later this month. The company received a listing approval earlier this week from the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. The airline had intended to list overseas by last year, but the plan was put on ice. Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and a Morgan Stanley investment fund are among 26 foreign investors which recently bought a stake in VietJet. Company CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, the nation's first female billionaire, is the biggest shareholder. The CAPA Centre for Aviation has said that VietJet, which currently commands 40 per cent of Vietnam's domestic market, will likely surpass flag carrier Vietnam Airlines this year as the nation's top domestic carrier. VietJet currently operates about 60 routes both locally and internationally, and expects to have a fleet of 200 aircraft by 2023. It had ordered billions worth of jets from both Airbus and Boeing in recent years.<br/>
Jetstar has been chosen as an official supplier of government travel for the first time. This will mean government departments will have a choice between Air NZ and Jetstar on domestic routes, following a hotly-contested bidding round for the lucrative 10-year deal. Jetstar Group CE, Jayne Hrdlicka, said the airline was now firmly established in New Zealand and able to provide the government with a choice for domestic jet and regional travel to a range of destinations Jetstar is part of the Qantas group and Qantas is again a supplier for transtasman and long haul services. Hrdlicka said the choice of which airline to fly on main trunk and some regional routes would save taxpayers money. She said that with short flight times within New Zealand, a low fares domestic airline option made economic sense for government travel.<br/>
Hawaiian Airlines has reached a tentative agreement with its pilots union on a six-year contract that will increase wages for some of its pilots by as much as 40% the first year. Wages for the remaining five years would go up between 2 percent and 3 percent, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Wednesday. That means the airline's most experienced captains flying the largest planes would see their pay jump to $313,000, up from $223,000. "It definitely will be a significant gain year over year for the pilots," said union leader Hoon Lee with the Air Line Pilots Association. The union, which had been threatening to strike if no deal was reached, is still reviewing the agreement before it gets sent to its 674 members for a vote. "Both parties are currently confirming specific changes and completing remaining contract language," the ALPA said. "Once that is completed, pilot leaders will review and vote on whether to send the tentative agreement to Hawaiian Airlines pilots for possible member ratification." The deal comes after nearly two years of negotiations and about a year in federal mediation. The union leaders voted 3-1 to approve the agreement, with Lee casting the sole dissenting vote. Lee said he did not choose to support the agreement because he did not think it reached a market-rate contract with full retroactive value.<br/>