Norwegian Air faces mounting pressure to control costs and shore up its balance sheet to weather fierce competition. The airline has embarked on an ambitious expansion plan buying more than 200 new fuel-efficient jets yet investors worry its drive to put more passengers on more planes is pushing up costs quickly without producing higher returns. Doubts are creeping in because Norwegian's fate rests on the still unproven strategy of adapting the success of low-cost short-haul travel to long-haul routes, as well as making a parallel bet on leasing out jets to rival carriers pay off. Its shares have dropped 38% in 2017 bucking the industry trend and, according to Norway's Financial Supervisory Authority, investors have taken out bets on price falls with 5.35m of its shares, or 14.9% of its capital. <br/>
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Nok Air has zeroed in on the Chinese market expansion as a prime driver for its recently launched turnaround plan. The China focus features prominently in the struggling carrier's new strategic plan, which seeks to boost its international profile as a means to lift overall financial performance. The airline, which has been in the red since 2014, wants to systematically raise the international share of its total business from 5% to 20% by the end of this year, then on to 30-35% in 2018, rising to 40% in 2019 before reaching 50% in 2020. VP for marketing and sales Pinyot Pibulsonggram said flights to China would primarily strengthen factors that contribute to improved operation results. Boosting its international footprint is expected to reduce Nok Air's likely losses this year before turning black next year, according to Pinyot. <br/>
Air Asia India is likely to break-even or report profit by 2019 despite substantial rise in fuel and staff cost which took a toll on its bottom-line during January-March quarter of the current calendar year which is Q1 of its financial year. Apart from expanding in the domestic market, the management is in the process of finalising the plan for the international operations which is expected to start by the end of next year. The carrier is also focussed on increasing the fleet size and utilisation of its existing A320 aircraft besides enhancing profit margins by improving its offering for corporate travelers. CE Amar Abrol said that the airline will continue to invest in the right products and is adequately funded to expand its domestic operations. “Financially we are headed in the right direction and confident of breaking even by 2019." <br/>
Air Baltic, the Latvian carrier that’s gone from near collapse to launch customer for Bombardier’s largest C Series jetliner, aims to secure a strategic investor as soon as the end of this year after attracting a global line-up of potential bidders. Lazard Ltd., which is managing the sale, has drawn up a shortlist including other airlines as well as financial investors with aviation experience, and will now commence a period of due diligence before seeking binding bids, Martin Gauss, the carrier’s CE, said. Latvia, which owns 80.5% of AirBaltic, could reduce its holding to below 50% and may opt to sell a majority stake, according to Gauss, who became CE in 2011 when the company was nationalised as it teetered on the brink of collapse. Since then, he has dropped a point-to-point discount strategy in favour of a hub model. <br/>
SIA has dropped its short-haul LCC brand Tigerair, merging the airline into mid- to long-haul LCC Scoot. “With this final milestone in the integration process, the airlines will begin operating under a common license…the flight designator code for Scoot flights will be changed from the current TZ to TR, the code currently used for Tigerair flights. All flight schedules remain unchanged,” Scoot and Tigerair parent company Budget Aviation Holdings said. The two LCCs were brought together as subsidiaries of BAH in May 2016 with a view to closer cooperation. BAH is, in turn, 100% owned by SIA Group. Since then, the two airlines have been working to integrate their reservation systems, flight schedules and connections, conditions of carriage, check-in counters and call centres. Those integrations have now been completed. <br/>
JetBlue Airways reported Q2 net income of US$211m, up 16.7% over a net profit of $181m in the 2016 June quarter and a solid turnaround from a 58.8% year-over-year (YOY) net income decline in the 2017 Q1. JetBlue executives credited higher-than-anticipated YOY second-quarter unit revenue growth and progress made in cost cutting. President and CE Robin Hayes said that JetBlue has achieved $45m in annual cost savings so far; the carrier’s ultimate goal is $250m-$300m in yearly cost savings by 2020. JetBlue’s Q2 revenue rose 12.1% YOY to $1.8b while expenses increased 11.9% to $1.5b, producing an operating profit of $354m, up 13% over operating income of $313m in the prior-year period. JetBlue noted that Q2 RASM increased 7% YOY to 12.93 cents. <br/>
Hawaiian Airlines parent Hawaiian Holdings posted a 1% profit increase during Q2 of 2017, while revenue increased 13.6% to US$675.3m, according to earnings released Tuesday. The airline posted net income of $80.4m, or $1.49 per diluted share, compared to $79.6m, or $1.48 per diluted share, reported for Q2 of 2017. Mark Dunkerley, president and CE of Hawaiian Airlines said: “These results have come courtesy of strong demand for the Hawaii vacation, low fuel prices, moderate industry capacity, and an excellent job done by my colleagues in finding new ways to strengthen our performance.” For the 6 months ending June 30, net income decreased 10.4% to $117.3m from $131m during the same period last year. <br/>