Emirates is stripping out costs from its business as it adapts to weaker markets and a stronger dollar and the rise of low-cost long-haul rivals, the carrier's president said Thursday. Changing economic conditions are forcing state-backed Gulf airlines, who have moved into many foreign markets from Asia to South America in recent years, to revise their business models and slow their once rampant growth in capacity. "We are subject to market changes like everybody else is," president Tim Clark said. One of the changes is the rise of lower-cost long-haul travel, he said, describing it as a "gathering storm". Clark said: "The way people travel, their decisions for travelling, the amount of money they're prepared to pay, new entrants coming to market, long-range single aisles, it's all changing". <br/>
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US president Donald Trump's January travel ban had a significant impact on booking rates to the US for Emirates airline and it has not yet fully recovered, the carrier’s president said Thursday. “The first U.S. travel order saw the booking velocity fall by 35% overnight. The effect it had was instantaneous,” Tim Clark said Thursday. He said the revised order issued this week offered more clarity, and there had been some positive movement in bookings on the Emirates network but not a full recovery. “When will it recapture the original booking curve is anyone’s guess,” he said. Clark said he hoped for an improvement in the summer following the usually quiet period during Ramadan. <br/>
Alaska Airlines moved to further solidify its presence in the San Francisco Bay Area March 9 by announcing 13 new nonstop routes from the region beginning Aug 28. Ten of the routes will serve San Francisco International (SFO) and the 3 will originate from San Jose International (SJC). Alaska described it as the single largest new market announcement in company history, coming on the heels of the airline’s formal acquisition of Virgin America in Dec 2016. With the new routes, the combined Alaska-Virgin America airline will offer 125 daily nonstop flights to 42 destinations from the Bay Area’s 3 major airports, the company said. Aircraft utilisation will primarily involve Virgin America’s all-Airbus fleet and Embraer E175 aircraft still to be delivered to Alaska Airlines’ regional flying subsidiary Horizon Air. <br/>
Pegasus Airlines dropped into the red in 2016, recording a net loss of TL136.2m ($36.1m), sharply reversed from a profit of TL111.9m in 2015. Revenue for the year rose 6% year-over-year to TL3.7b. The loss had been expected, but in Sept 2016, CE Mehmet Nane said he anticipated the airline would bounce back in 2017. Although the situation was already improving by that point, he said the recovery would not be sufficient to offset a poor first half of the year. Turkey’s airlines have been badly hit by a combination of external factors, including a series of terrorist incidents that have scared away western European tourists. Passengers carried in 2016 increased 8.1% YOY to 24.1m, up from 22.3m in 2015. The increase was largely attributable to a 10.7% rise in domestic passengers on Pegasus’ extensive internal route network. <br/>
At least 17 companies have expressed an interest in operating Air Botswana as the govt embarks on its latest drive to privatise loss-making state companies. The transport department invited expressions of interest last month, saying it was open to proposals on various forms of privatisation of the national airline including joint ventures, ownership, franchising and concessions. "At least 17 companies have expressed interest but for now I cannot say who they are or what model of privatisation did they propose," Transport minister Kitso Mokaila said Thursday. He added: "We have roped in IATA to help us assess them with the intention of getting the one that has the most suitable model for Botswana. From there we will then go to tender." <br/>
Azul, already the world’s largest operator of the current generation Embraer 195, will be the launch operator of the re-engined E195-E2. “Azul played a key role in the E195-E2 development, actively participating in the design specification of the aircraft and helping Embraer design the most efficient single-aisle aircraft in the market today,” says John Slattery, Embraer commercial aviation president and CE. The carrier has an order for up to 50 E195-E2s, comprising 30 firm orders and 20 purchase rights. The airline will configure its new aircraft in a single-class layout with 130 seats. Embraer is targeting to deliver the first E195-E2 in the first half of 2019. Azul has 73 E-Jets in service, of which 64 are E195s. <br/>
Romanian LCC Blue Air, the second biggest air carrier in the local market, will operate 6 new routes starting June 15. Two of them will connect Romania’s capital Bucharest to Finland’s capital Helsinki and Norway’s Oslo, 3 will fly from Iasi to Florence, Glasgow, and Milan Bergamo, and 1 from Liverpool to Larnaca. The company will reach a total of 104 routes this summer. Besides this, it will also have 700 charter flights, said Blue Air general director Gheorghe Racaru. In 2016, the company saw an advance of 80% in the number of passengers. For this year, it plans to reach 4.05m passengers, up 12.8% over 2016. The market leader remains Wizz Air, which recorded a traffic of 5.5m in the local market last year, up 23% year-on-year. Blue Air managed to surpass Tarom last year, which recorded 2.41m passengers. <br/>