British holidaymakers have finally returned home after being stranded on the Greek island of Zante for up to 3 days because of concerns over endangered turtles. Technical problems with an EasyJet flight to London Gatwick saw it marooned on the tarmac since Sunday. The airline tried to rescue those who had been stranded in "total chaos", but a night-time curfew on landings reportedly caused by endangered loggerhead turtles mean they had to cancel a relief flight. Zakynthos airport is situated close to beaches where the turtles lay their eggs at night, prompting the authorities to ban aircraft when it is dark. Around 40 people from the original 180 booked onto Sunday's flight are understood to have returned to the UK on an EasyJet flight, which was also delayed, late Tuesday afternoon. <br/>
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WestJet says the launch of its new no-frills, low-cost airline won't be until next summer after initially announcing plans it would start offering flights later this year. The delay comes in part after the airline decided to switch to a lower-cost booking system, CE Gregg Saretsky said Tuesday. "That adds a little bit of timeline to it, in terms of negotiating of an agreement, and then the physical implementation of all the plumbing that's required to support it. And we're taking our time to get it right." He said WestJet also doesn't expect to get regulatory certificates until Q1 of next year, which is when the airline aims to release an initial flight schedule. Saretsky said the delay means the company can use the quieter spring season to reconfigure the 10 Boeing 737s that it will be shifting over to the new carrier. <br/>
Flybe Group said it’s pursuing 10 to 20 more partnership agreements with major airlines following its introduction of flights to London Heathrow in March. The services from Edinburgh and Aberdeen offer bigger carriers the chance to tap Scottish markets by striking code-share deals that let them sell tickets on Flybe’s planes as if they were their own. “Airlines flying from Heathrow see us as a unique opportunity to feed their flights,” CE Christine Ourmieres-Widener said, adding that when Flybe announced the services in Dec 2016 it had “more requests for code-shares than passengers booked on our flights.” Flybe currently has 11 code-share partners. Ourmieres-Widener said talks are ongoing with at least 1 US carrier, and that Manchester and Birmingham also offer further code-share prospects. <br/>
Alaska Airlines says it is taking precautions including requiring employees to change their passwords after Virgin America's computer systems were hacked. An Alaska Airlines spokeswoman said Monday that the company noticed unusual activity in Virgin's systems in March and notified law enforcement and hired cybersecurity experts. She said customer information wasn't affected but employees and contractors will be required to change passwords every 90 days. About 3,100 employees may have had their login information stolen, the airline said. Another 110 also had personal information compromised, including addresses, Social Security numbers and health-related information. The airline is paying for credit-monitoring services for those 110 employees and contractors. <br/>
Air Astana carried 1.9m passengers in the 2017 first half, up 12% compared to the year-ago period. The carrier also confirmed it is leasing 5 Embraer E190-E2 jets from AerCap Holdings. Domestic traffic was up 4% and international traffic grew 22% year-over-year, driven mainly by network traffic transiting through the carrier’s Astana and Almaty hubs, which grew 62% YOY. Cargo uplift increased 22% in 1H 2017. In February, Air Astana president and CE Peter Foster said the carrier would push for more services into Russia, China, India and Europe, increasing the number of sixth-freedom passengers via its main Astana hub, which was expected to double in size. Tuesday, Foster said Kazakhstan’s economy is delivering “modest growth after 2 very difficult years, and we expect this to accelerate as the economy continues to diversify.” <br/>
Florida-based Silver Airways took significant steps toward a long-term goal to become a major US airline by announcing its intention to purchase up to 50 ATR-600 series turboprops, valued at a potential US$1.1b if all options are taken. Silver’s initial order is for 20 ATR 42-600 aircraft, the 46-50 seat model; the letter of intent signed Aug 1 provides Silver the ability to up-gauge to the larger 68-78 seat ATR 72-600 model. The firm 20 ATR 42-600 aircraft will be lease-financed by Silver, the company said. Silver will be ATR’s first North American customer for its -600 series turboprops. Silver plans to take delivery of up to 4 of the new ATRs in Q4 2017, following regulatory approvals. Delivery of the remaining 16 aircraft should be completed by Q1 2020, the company said. <br/>