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Emirates remains committed to the US market despite plans to slash 20% of its flights in the wake of tougher security and visa measures put in place under the Trump administration, the airline's president said Thursday. In his first interview since announcing the cutbacks, Tim Clark said that the Mideast's biggest carrier has no intention of pulling out of the 12 US cities to which it currently flies. He said the decision to cut flights to five cities was a temporary response to a drop in demand, and does not signal a desire by Emirates to halt its expansion in the world's largest aviation market. "This is not a permanent arrangement. ... I do not see this as a paradigm shift," Clark said. "Obviously our plans remain in place and we are as bullish and as confident about the US markets as we have been." Emirates said Wednesday it was cutting 25 of the 126 weekly flights it operates into the US from Dubai starting next month. It blamed the move on stiffer US security measures and attempts to ban travellers from some Muslim-majority nations since President Donald Trump took office. Clark declined to detail how much of a financial hit the Dubai government-backed carrier has taken over the past three months, but he described the falloff in passenger demand as "significant." "It is not something that Emirates does lightly when it starts pulling capacity out of markets that it's spent millions of dollars developing and operating," he said. "So when it gets to this, suffice to say they are falls which cause us to make those kinds of changes." The cutbacks will mean twice daily Emirates flights to Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle will fall to once a day. Daily flights to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando will be trimmed to five per week.<br/>

Emirates is coming to New Zealand with open days for pilots its Kiwi recruitment head Craig Mitchell says is part of a plan to recruit as many pilots as possible. The ex-RNZAF Skyhawk pilot said the sessions in Auckland on April 28 and Christchurch on April 30 weren't formal recruiting days but were more about "spreading the word and sharing the information". Worldwide there is a shortage pilots and the New Zealand Airline Pilots Association says it is concerned New Zealand's own airlines are not investing enough in the ongoing training of local pilots. Mitchell said Kiwi pilots were sought after. "We're looking for as many pilots as we can get at the moment - particularly given the level in which New Zealand-based training is held in high regard." Emirates pilots typically work 85 hours a month. At entry level a first officer is paid up to 44,450 Dirham ($17,031) a month including a housing allowance. That can be tax free depending on accounting arrangements. A captain with 7000 hours command time is hired on 58,770 Dirham a month, including an accommodation allowance. Staff also get other benefits, including insurance and free travel. Pilots would be flying the biggest passenger plane in the world, the Airbus A380 or Boeing 777s, ''which is no slug either".<br/>

WestJet Airlines said Thursday it plans to launch an ultra-low-cost carrier in Canada in a move that would intensify competition with domestic rivals, including Air Canada's lower-priced Rouge service. WestJet aims to kick off the service late this year with an initial fleet of 10 Boeing Co 737-800s planes. Bob Cummings, WestJet's executive VP, commercial, told Reuters the new offering would feature an "a la carte model" of a base fare plus specific fees for services like checked baggage, only taken one step further. While other low-cost carriers have failed in Canada, WestJet's strategy would work by winning market share from competitors such as Rouge and Sunwing Airlines while cannibalizing some of its own traffic, Cummings said. "Between taking share from others and, quite frankly, taking some share from us, the math makes sense." Cummings declined to give specifics about the new fares, but said the cost structure would not be comparable to the deeply discounted fares offered by European ultra-low-cost carriers like Ryan Air. "We are not likely to be at the Ryan Air end of the spectrum," he said. WestJet, which started life as a low-cost airline, has added premium services in a bid to increase revenue, but is planning the ultra-low-cost structure to service the other end.<br/>

Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle announced its first route linking London and Asia on Thursday, starting a service to Singapore as it seeks a slice of the market for business and leisure travellers on longer haul flights. Norwegian has been expanding rapidly on routes from Europe to the United States over the last year, prompting other carriers to launch their own budget operations or introduce lower-priced fares that strip out items such as baggage. The latest move sees Norwegian steal a march on budget carrier Air Asia X on low-cost travel between Asia and London. Malaysia-based Air Asia X has been considering restarting a route to London after axing it in 2012. "Our transatlantic flights have shown the huge demand for affordable long-haul travel, so we are delighted to expand into new markets and offer our first route to Asia from the UK," Norwegian CE Bjorn Kjos said. Norwegian's flights between the financial centres of London and Singapore will start at the end of September and use the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. They will fly from London's Gatwick airport. Non-stop flights on the London-Singapore route are currently operated by British Airways and Singapore Airlines .<br/>

VietJet Aviation, which controls almost half of Vietnam’s domestic airline market after first taking flight six years ago, received shareholder approval to increase foreign ownership to meet investor demand in the nation’s soaring travel industry. Shareholders meeting in Ho Chi Minh City agreed to raise the cap on foreign ownership to 49 from 30% as the budget carrier forecasts 2017 profit to rise 36% from $110m in 2016, the company said. Carrier’s higher foreign ownership now needs the approval of PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc because aviation is considered a restricted industry with a 30% foreign ownership cap. VietJet has 136 foreign investors who own 26% of the company, CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said. Raising the foreign investor limit is not aimed at attracting a strategic investor, though the company is be open to one, she said. “I just want to create more investment opportunities to those who want to invest in VietJet and create better liquidity in the market,” she said. “Vietnam’s aviation industry is very attractive to investors,” said Tran Thi Hai Yen, a Ho Chi Minh City-based analyst at ACB Securities JSC. “There are more and more foreign investors interested in this company now.”<br/>

Even after disembarking from North Korea's Air Koryo plane at Pyongyang airport, it's difficult to miss the airline's brand. The Air Koryo conglomerate makes cigarettes and fizzy drinks, besides owning a taxi fleet and petrol stations - and all have the same flying crane logo as the carrier. The military-controlled airline expanded into consumer products in earnest in recent months, visitors to the isolated country say. It was not clear if the diversification into the domestic market was related to the loss of many international routes when the United Nations slapped economic sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Washington is now considering tougher measures, including a global ban on Air Koryo itself, to punish North Korea for continuing weapons tests, US officials have said. But any US action on Air Koryo would not be binding on other nations and would have little effect unless joined by China and Russia - both of which have sought to introduce exceptions to United Nations sanctions on North Korea in the past. "China may indeed agree to this kind of ban on Air Koryo since it seems like China and the US have reached an agreement that North Korea needs to be dealt with in some way. But the question is whether Russia will agree to sanctions against Air Koryo," said Sun Xingjie, an associate professor at China's Jilin University.<br/>

The first Airbus A321neo, the largest and longest-range variant of the Airbus family of re-engined narrowbody aircraft, has been delivered to Virgin America. Virgin America, a subsidiary of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group, is leasing the A321neo from GE Capital Aviation Services. It took delivery of the aircraft, powered by CFM International LEAP-1A engines, at an April 20 ceremony in Hamburg. Virgin America president Peter Hunt said the A321neo “will allow us to further reduce our unit costs and enable us to further reduce our carbon emissions.” The A321neo joins Virgin America’s fleet of 53 A320ceos and 10 A319ceos. Configured with 184 seats, the A321neo is expected to enter service May 31 on Virgin America’s San Francisco-Washington National transcontinental route. <br/>

Estonian national carrier Nordica is to add two Bombardier CRJ900 regional jets to its fleet. The Tallinn-based airline currently operates a fleet of six CRJ900s and two CRJ700s. The Baltic nation’s state-owned Transpordi Varahaldus transport sector investment and holding company will issue E25m worth of bonds with a maturity period of eight years to buy the aircraft and lease them to Nordica. The bonds will be bought equally by two Estonian entities, LHV pension funds and LHV Bank. “We are convinced that Nordica … is being reasonably built up,” said the head of LHV pension funds Andres Viisemann. “Any major steps are taken only if there is reasonable reassurance that it is economically beneficial and improves the position of Nordica and Estonian aviation alike. Nordica is expanding both its own operations and those in support of strategic partner LOT Polish Airlines.<br/>

Thai AirAsia (TAA) had its licence re-certified by the Thai civil aviation authority in compliance with global safety standards. Thailand's largest low-cost carrier has become the second Thai-registered airline to complete the re-certification of its air operator's certificate (AOC). The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) is due to officially extend the re-certified AOC to TAA today as the authority's AOC re-certification process progresses at a snail's pace due to a critical shortage of auditing officials and technical complications. More than 20 Thai-registered airlines are still awaiting AOC re-certification by the CAAT, which has significant bearing on the International Civil Aviation Organization's decision to remove the punitive red flag on Thailand for aviation safety shortcomings. <br/>

Hawaiian Airlines released its first quarter financial results on Thursday showing net income down 28% as fuel and staff costs increased. Operating revenue for the quarter to March 31 rose 11.4% to USD$614.2m, but costs jumped 20.4% to $546.9m. Fuel costs were up almost 50% at $103.6m, while wages and benefits rose 17.5% to $151m. Hawaiian flew 2.7m passengers in the quarter, a 2.2% increase on 1Q16. Passenger traffic in revenue passenger miles (RPM) was up 7.2% on an ASM capacity increase of 3.5%. The resulting passenger load factor rose 2.9 percentage points to 84%. Unit revenue (PRASM) was up 7.7% at 11.89 cents. “The year has started extremely well. Strong demand coupled with benign industry capacity growth in our geographies have given us a robust operating environment sufficient to more than offset the impact of the rising price of fuel,” Hawaiian CE Mark Dunkerley said.<br/>