unaligned

Ryanair CE Michael O'Leary has said there is a remote possibility that flights to the UK may be suspended during the Brexit negotiations. O'Leary said if the UK leaves the Open Skies arrangement a new deal will have to be agreed. He says if they leave the current arrangement it could leave passengers temporarily without flights. “Then they've got to put in place some bilateral agreement with the EU and it is going to be very hard to see how a bilateral gets put in place with an 18 month timeframe. So there is a possibility, unlikely but a possibility, that there may be no flights to and from the UK after March ‘19 for a 3 or 6 month period. That may be one of the things that shocks the British electorate into realising, ‘Oh my God, what have we done here?’.” <br/>

JetBlue is trimming capacity to Cuba, becoming the third US airline to do so since regular commercial passenger service to the island nation resumed in August. JetBlue will not eliminate any of its Cuban destinations nor will it reduce flight schedules. Instead, the carrier will begin downsize to smaller aircraft on several of its existing routes, a move that will pare 300 seats a day from JetBlue’s current Cuba schedules. “We are continuing to operate our schedule of nearly 50 weekly round trip Cuban flights but have made adjustments to our fleet utilisation,” a JetBlue spokesman said. JetBlue did not cite demand in tightening its Cuba capacity, but it follows similar moves made by American Airlines and smaller Silver Airways. In December, American announced it would drop 1 of the 2 daily flights from its schedules between Miami and each of the Cuban cities of Holguin, Santa Clara and Varadero. <br/>

Sichuan Airlines will begin 3 direct flights per week between Auckland and Chengdu in southwest China from June. The airline will use an A330-200 aircraft, with business and economy class configuration and operate initially Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It is the latest regional Chinese carrier to enter the New Zealand market following the arrival of Tainjin and Hainan airlines during summer. The flight will only take 13 hours flying directly from New Zealand to the Southwest part of China. JC Zhi, Sichuan Airlines' New Zealand GM said the airline was delighted to announce the new service. "We have great confidence in the New Zealand market and this news clearly demonstrates our ongoing commitment as we open further gateways and services to China." <br/>

The success of Tigerair's Canberra-Melbourne flights has encouraged the airline to consider additional services to other destinations. Tigerair commercial director Adam Rowe said the flights, which resumed in December, had been well supported. The latest govt data shows an 11.1% increase in passengers on the Canberra-Melbourne route in Dec 2016, with Tigerair only operating for part of the month. There were 87,600 trips made on the sector in Dec 2016, compared with 78,900 in the same month a year before, elevating it to the 15th busiest in Australia. Tigerair has won market share with its cheap fares and improved reliability. Rowe said Tigerair was "very pleased" with patronage on the Melbourne-Canberra service. "The acceptance of the low-cost product back into the market is absolutely phenomenal," he said. <br/>

What would have been the first regular passenger flight from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan in a quarter of a century was canceled abruptly Monday, leaving the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations' rapprochement in doubt. Tajikistan's Somon Air said Tashkent airport had notified it Monday that the airline was not allowed to make the flight, without giving a reason. Uzbek carrier Uzbekistan Airways, which operates the airport and is due to start its own flights to Tajikistan in April, had no immediate comment. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to resume flights, stopped in 1992, last month after the new Tashkent govt sought to improve ties with its neighbours. Uzbek president Islam Karimov, who had strained relations with most Central Asian leaders, died in September after 27 years in power. <br/>

Norwegian is planning to open up transatlantic services from several mid-sized US cities that do not have European flights, the airline’s CE said Feb 20. Bjorn Kjos said that the airline’s planned Airbus A321neoLR long-range variants would give it the capability to serve medium-sized US airports. They would also allow the carrier to open up new routes from Scandinavia to India and “a large part of Asia.” He did not think that there would be passenger reluctance to fly long-haul on single-aisle aircraft: “We fly from Scandinavia to Dubai today and that’s not a problem,” he said, pointing out that a flight to India would be only about 90 minutes longer. Kjos confirmed rumours that its 2 new bases in the US would be located in Providence, Rhode Island, and Stewart International, New York State. <br/>

GOL reported a full-year 2016 net profit of BRL1.1b (US$338.5m), reversing the airline’s BRL4.3b net loss in 2015. GOL reported full-year revenue of BRL 9.9b, up 0.9% from 2015 as operating expenses decreased 7.9% to BRL9.2b. The company reported BRL696.5m in operating income for the year, reversing a BRL183.8m operating loss in 2015. The airline’s operating margin (EBIT) for the year was 7.1%, up 9 points from 2015. In May 2016, responding to the Brazilian economic downturn, GOL embarked on extensive flight network restructuring, reducing the number of seats available for sale by 17% over the year. GOL’s full-year 2016 yield increased 8% to BRL 24.14 cents as RASK grew 8.3% to BRL 21.30 cents and CASK fell 1.1% to BRL 19.79 cents. GOL’s CASK ex- fuel rose 4.4% to BRL 13.97 cents. <br/>