Even as Malaysia’s AirAsia and its affiliates in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines initiate operations to India, nearly 3-year old AirAsia India continues preparations for international operations next year while serving as a domestic feeder to its group. India’s civil aviation policy mandates a domestic carrier must fly 3 years and operate at least 20 aircraft before launching international flights. Now flying 8 Airbus A320s, AirAsia India plans to increase its fleet size to 14 by October and to 20 by autumn 2018, CE Amar Abrol said. The airline will primarily connect metropolitan centres to second-tier cities as it expands. “The overall strategy is route dominance rather than getting hammered everywhere,” said Abrol. AirAsia took delivery of its first A320neo last September and plans to accelerate deliveries this year. <br/>
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Alaska Airlines began in 1932 when a former miner, truck driver, and dishwasher from the Midwest, decided to start a carrier in Anchorage. Since then, the airline has become a favourite for travellers in the Pacific Northwest, nurturing a following without such frills as mood lights or lounge music. That’s about to change. Alaska Air Group closed its US$2.6b purchase of Virgin America in December. Unlike recent airline mergers born of financial duress, both Alaska and Virgin America had built successful franchises. Yet, they had fallen behind, dwarfed by rivals in an industry now dominated by behemoths. Alaska saw its growth inextricably tied to California, Virgin America’s base. A deal was struck. But merging staid Alaska with Virgin America, a brand that spearheaded the airline trend toward Austin Powers atmospherics, wasn’t going to be easy. <br/>
CityJet will station crew in the Estonian capital of Tallinn for the first time and provide additional capacity for the regional arm of KLM. CityJet, which is shifting its operations increasingly from scheduled services to providing flights for others, announced in Feb 2017, in so-called “white label” services for SAS. The flights are operated using Bombardier CRJ900 regional jets on thinner SAS routes. CityJet has 12 CRJ900s and 10 more on order. Meanwhile, CityJet and KLM Cityhopper have announced a new wet-lease arrangement on routes between the UK and the Netherlands. This increases the scope of an existing codeshare agreement between the two companies. From May 15, KLM Cityhopper will wet-lease 2 Avro RJ85 regional jets from CityJet to operate 4 additional Amsterdam Schiphol-London City Airport each weekday. <br/>
The newly emerging low-cost airline, Blue Slovakia, wants to provide scheduled domestic air transport in Slovakia and is waiting for permits. “We have submitted our request to obtain an air operator’s certificate to the Transport Authority and now we have to wait for the request to be approved,” said the company’s MD Ľubomír Kolárik. “We’re planning to launch our first domestic flights within Slovakia in early May.” The airline should receive its own AOC permit as well as the necessary licences by the end of 2017. Until then, it wants to operate the flights under the AOC held by the Van Air Europe airline. Blue Slovakia wants to interconnect the biggest Slovak airports, such as those in Bratislava, Košice, Poprad-Tatry (near the High Tatars), Sliač (Banská Bystrica region), Žilina and the spa town of Piešťany (Trnava Region). <br/>
Air Madagascar has signed a memorandum of understanding to create a strategic partnership with Reunion-based Air Austral, under a deal which is expected to be finalised by May 31. Air Austral, which is already partnered with Air Madagascar through the Vanilla Alliance, was selected as Air Madagascar’s preferred partner in March after beating off a rival bid from Ethiopian Airlines. “This is an important step towards a final agreement. We hope that this long-term partnership will return the company to stability and help Air Madagascar regain its position at the centre of national, regional and international aviation development. The business plan proposed by Air Austral will allow us to develop commercial relationships with major international companies,” Air Madagascar chairman Léon Rajaobelina said. <br/>
Oman Air’s fleet and route map continued to grow in 2016, but the airline’s financial performance remained unclear after it announced its annual financial report. Despite the document’s title, few details were given, notably in terms of profit and loss. The carrier’s revenues in 2016 inched upwards by 1% compared to 2015, to OMR472m (US$1.2b), but no figures were given to compare against 2015’s net loss of OMR86m. The airline, which has been consistently loss-making, has been slowly reducing its deficit in recent years and had been aiming to reach breakeven by the end of 2017. The carrier’s losses have been underwritten by the Omani govt, but that support has been dropping sharply. <br/>