unaligned

The collapse of Monarch was timed to avoid more disruption and could not have been averted because of Britain’s insolvency laws, the airline’s CE has said. Monarch was placed into administration at 4am Monday, triggering Britain’s biggest peacetime repatriation of stranded air travellers, which is expected to take about 2 weeks to complete. Andrew Swaffield, the Monarch CE, said executives had “left no stone unturned” in their effort to save the airline, but concluded Saturday night that there was no prospect of recovery. However, Monarch waited more than 24 hours to go into administration to allow the CAA to prepare its emergency flight operation. The CAA brought 11,843 Monarch customers back to the UK on 61 flights Monday, with a further 11,647 passengers expected to travel home Tuesday on specially chartered planes. <br/>

The collapse of Monarch Airlines could be great news for other carriers, with EasyJet likely to be the big winner as Ryanair battles pilot-related woes. Monarch collapsed after a long period of financial difficulty, leaving behind a hole in the UK’s aviation market. Analysts believe the collapse, which has led to the cancellation of 300,000 bookings, could boost rivals. “We note that EasyJet and Ryanair have the highest capacity overlap with Monarch and in the event of an exit could be the biggest potential beneficiaries,” a Goldman Sachs note circulated Monday said. Monarch had just 3% of the total short-haul market in the UK but that small overall percentage could allow significant expansion for other airlines – particularly EasyJet given the state of rival Ryanair. <br/>

Ryanair added the fewest number of passengers in 6 months in September as the first of more than 20,000 flight cancellations prompted by a pilot shortage began to weigh on growth. The customer count rose by 1m to 11.8m, Ryanair said Tuesday, the smallest increment since the carrier added 900,000 passengers in March. The 9.2% advance is down from a near 14% jump last September, and compares with gains of at least 1.2m people over the prior 5 months. The airline said Sept 15 that it would scrap 2,100 flights through the end of October as it battled with a rostering “mess up,” before cancelling another 18,000 stretching into the start of next summer. The first weekend of disruption saw about 80 flights lost each day, with around 50 dropped daily for the rest of the month. <br/>

Ryanair pilots campaigning for unionisation amid a staffing crisis that’s led to the cancellation of 20,000 flights have been offered financial backing from American Airlines Group’s cockpit-crew association. The Allied Pilots Association has offered to support Ryanair crews in forming a union or joining an existing body such as the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association, according to Daniel Carey, president of the US group, who met with the carrier’s employees last week. The APA is aiming to stem the hiring of staff on unappealing contracts through outsourcing firms. “We’ve been following the Ryanair model and we don’t want indirect employment to come to America,” Carey said, adding that APA is open to pitching in with communication expertise, IT support, additional manpower and financial assistance. <br/>

Ryanair pilots are being investigated by HM Revenue & Customs over complex employment structures imposed on them by the airline. Several experienced pilots said that they have faced tax investigations relating to the way in which they are employed by Ryanair. The airline is already grappling with a PR disaster caused by errors in how pilots are rostered for work – leading to the cancellation of tens of thousands of flights through to March next year. The tax authority’s focus on individual pilots emerged 2 years after it launched an investigation into Ryanair’s use of agencies such as Brookfield Aviation to provide about half of its 4,200 pilots. Those who apply to join Ryanair are told to set up an Irish limited company and are made directors of it, under the guidance of accountants recommended by the airline. <br/>

Brisbane airport will become one of the first airports in the world to use biofuel, with Virgin Australia trialling the sustainable fuel source. Virgin has partnered with US-based renewable fuel supplier Gevco to supply "biojet" to Virgin planes out of Brisbane for the next 2 years. Virgin Australia CE John Borghetti said the airline wanted to test whether the renewable fuel source was a viable alternative to straight jet fuel. "The project announced today is critical to testing the fuel supply chain infrastructure in Australia to ensure that Virgin and Brisbane Airport are ready for the commercial supply of these exciting fuels," he said. The renewable components of the fuel will be sourced from local biofuel providers, which create the fuel from mostly sugarcane products and agave. <br/>

The Philippines unit of AirAsia is seeking to raise up to US$250m via an IPO in mid-2018 to fund its expansion programme, its CE said Tuesday. The airline, which has 9 units in the region, is beefing up its fleet in the Philippines amid an expected long-term boom in budget air travel. AirAsia first raised the prospect of listing its Philippines unit in 2015, planning at that point to take the airline public as early as 2017. "We are working on the IPO, hopefully in the middle part of next year," Philippines AirAsia CE Dexter Comendador said. Philippines AirAsia had initially aimed to raise $200m but raised its target to fund purchases of more aircraft and to expand its route network, Comendador said. Its fleet will reach 70 aircraft in the next 10-15 years from the current 17, the CE said. <br/>

Small Planet Airlines has obtained a Cambodian air operator’s certificate to help counter European market seasonality. Small Planet Airlines, which launched in 2009, already holds AOCs in 3 European countries: Lithuania, Poland and Germany. It will operate in Cambodia as a new company, using its existing branding. “Due to a challenging seasonality in Europe, since 2012 we have been moving part of our fleet to Asia in the winter. Last year we implemented highly successful projects in India, Saudi Arabia and Cambodia, and managed to fly more block hours in Asia than we did in Europe,” Small Planet Airlines CE Kristijonas Kaikaris said. The new Cambodian-based company is 51%-owned local investor Aviation Invest Cambodia. Small Planet Group owns 29% and the remaining 20% belongs to the company’s CEs. <br/>

Fastjet plans to expand its services to cover other parts of Zimbabwe. The airline presently flies between Harare and Victoria Falls. A Fastjet spokesperson said her organisation has welcomed a statement by Finance and Economic Development minister Patrick Chinamasa that the country was opening its skies to “any airline that wants to fly as many times as possible”. “Flights between Bulawayo and Harare is at the top of FastJet’s agenda along with plans to fly to other areas of the country as the airline’s fleet grows. The carrier plans to engage authorities as soon as this week to shape plans,” she said. The airline said the opening of Zimbabwe’s skies positions the country as a leading nation in the early implementation of the African Union’s Yamoussoukro Declaration, the open skies vision of the continent. <br/>