China's Juneyao Airlines has finalised a US$1.32b order for five Boeing 787-9 dreamliners, part of a plan for new routes to North America, Europe and Australia over the next four years. The order represents the airline's first Boeing order and its first for widebody aircraft, the companies said in a statement issued late on Thursday. Juneyao said last month was planning on five firm dreamliner orders with an option for five more. The Shanghai-based privately owned company, which first flew in 2006, is one of several Chinese carriers aiming to expand internationally as growth in the country's outbound tourism market outpaces domestic tourism. Juneyao currently operates domestic routes or short-haul international flights to neighboring countries such as Japan, South Korea and Thailand. It agreed to join global airline alliance group Star Alliance as a "connecting partner" last October.<br/>
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Low-cost airline Wizz Air has announced plans to open a UK base at London Luton Airport. The new base in Britain, its 28th in total, will open on 18 June this year with a new Airbus A320 aircraft. The carrier also plans to bolster its presence at Luton, where it is currently the second largest carrier, and increase the number of routes being served from the airport to 42. The three new routes will fly from London to Tel Aviv in Israel, Prishtina in Kosovo and Kutaisi in Georgia. Wizz Air is also upping the frequency of other routes; Suceava will run five times a week, Constanta four per week and Iasi flights will operate daily from June too. Last year the airline carried more than 5m passengers and this year it will have nearly 6.3m seats on sale across its Luton routes, marking a 13% growth year-on-year. The move comes after the airline warned UK growth would be tempered after the Brexit vote. In July last year, the Hungarian carrier said it was halving UK growth projections “as a direct result of Brexit” and would reallocate two additional aircraft marked for the UK to continental Europe. CE Jozsef Varadi said that while there had not been a change in passenger demand since the vote, the sterling slide had diminished the euro value of its sales. <br/>
Norwegian Air warned on Thursday costs are rising faster than expected as it expands worldwide, knocking its shares. The airline is building up its transatlantic operations, has up to 29 Dreamliners on order from Boeing for $18.5b and is considering ordering more. Its underlying unit cost, which excludes fuel, was 0.32 crown in Q4, down 1% year-on-year, a lower-than-expected reduction for some analysts. "Q4 results show another disappointing cost performance," said Ross Harvey, an analyst at Irish brokerage Davy. "The underlying cost performance was again disappointing – down 1 percent versus our -3 % expectation, with the largest escalation occurring across peripheral cost lines in anticipation of 2017 growth." "Cost guidance for 2017 has increased by circa 2.6% on previous guidance, which means we will revise our expectation of a 4.7% improvement (at constant currency) downwards.<br/>
Norwegian Air expects Britain's vote to leave the EU to hit demand from some British customers, its CEO said Thursday. "England has received a punch after Brexit. So one must expect that English retirees will have less money," CEO Bjoern Kjos said. "So this will hit the traffic to Spain (from Britain)," he said. Norwegian Air flies to and from London's Gatwick airport, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh and serves a number of destinations in Spain. It is also building up operations from Britain, which it hopes to use as a base for its transatlantic flights.<br/>
Thai AirAsia is facing a crunch in network expansion both at home and in neighbouring countries. Currently, there are virtually no domestic airports capable of handling its Airbus 320 jet with 180 seats where the country's largest low-cost carrier can extend its service. All the larger Thai airports have already been made TAA ports of call, while all of the trunk routes, including Bangkok-Chiang Mai and Bangkok-Phuket, are being served at maximum capacity. Meanwhile, new destinations with visible traffic potential in neighbouring countries are increasingly hard to find, largely due to the carrier's aggressive expansion in the past. This poses a significant challenge for TAA, which continues to pursue a growth plan with 5-6 brand-new A320 jets being added to its fleet annually, reaching 56 by year-end, said commercial director Santisuk Klongchaiya. One of the marketing initiatives being adopted to address the constraints that is gaining traction is establishing new domestic inter-regional routes bypassing Bangkok. TAA Wednesday announced the launch of two new inter-regional connections from U-tapao airport in Rayong to Phuket and Ubon Ratchathani, both commencing on March 30 this year on a daily basis. The introduction of the two routes brings the number of TAA's domestic inter-regional routes to 13. <br/>
Nigeria's "bad bank" said on Thursday it had taken over the day-to-day running of Arik Air in an attempt to rescue the country's largest airline, which it placed in receivership last week after it was unable to pay workers or creditors. Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, the founder of Arik Air, has said the government seized the airline to meet a political goal of creating a "national carrier" and told Reuters he would challenge the move in court. Arik Air, which controls around 55% of the domestic market and is West Africa's biggest airline by passenger numbers, has been hard hit by Nigeria's currency crisis as its customers has to pay for fuel in dollars not naira. Arik owes AMCON, Nigeria's bad bank, around 147b naira and another 165b naira to four commercial lenders, AMCON's CE, Ahmed Kuru said in a presentation to lawmakers on Wednesday following the takeover.<br/>
Virgin Australia Holding Friday posted a 48% fall in H1 underlying pre-tax earnings and deferred the delivery of new Boeing737MAX aircraft after airfares tumbled due to tough conditions in the domestic aviation market. Australia's second-biggest airline reported an underlying profit before tax of A$42.3m (US$32.55m) for the six months ended Dec. 31, compared with A$81.5m in the year-earlier period. On a statutory basis, including restructuring charges associated with a cost-savings program, it reported a loss of A$A21.5m, compared with a A$62.5m profit the year before. Australia's domestic aviation market has been subdued for the past year due to weak demand for flying from corporate customers, including mining companies, as well as government travelers. Virgin said domestic yields, a proxy for average fare prices, had fallen by 5.6% in H1 of the financial year. “Going forward, the group will stay focused on strengthening our financial foundation by further optimizing the balance sheet and building a lower cost base," Virgin CEO John Borghetti said. The airline said it had deferred the first Boeing 737MAX aircraft to be delivered until late 2019, rather than 2018 as previously flagged, in a move that would postpone A$350m of capital spending beyond the financial year ended June 30, 2019.<br/>
Authorities say an American Eagle flight struck a deer while taking off from the Charlotte, North Carolina, international airport, forcing it to turn around and abort a flight to Gulfport, Mississippi. The FAA said in a statement that the pilot of Flight 5320 declared an emergency shortly before noon Wednesday. American Airlines spokeswoman Katie Cody said the aircraft was leaking fuel as a result of the deer strike. TV stations showed damage to one of the right front wing flaps of the CRJ700 jet, and emergency personnel sprayed foam on the aircraft as a precaution. No injuries were reported. The 44 passengers aboard the flight deplaned by stairs onto the tarmac and were seen boarding buses to return to the terminal.<br/>