Air Canada beat estimates, helped by Q3 yields and lower costs, with executives from the country’s largest airline optimistic about travel heading into the busy winter season. “We’re feeling good about what we’re seeing with future bookings,” Benjamin Smith, the carrier’s President, Passenger Airlines, told analysts on Wednesday. Yield grew by 0.4% on an annual basis, the first reported absolute yield growth in a quarter since the first three months of 2014, Smith said. Air Canada, which has been adding more destinations in Europe and Asia, sees opportunities from service vacated by carriers like insolvent Air Berlin and struggling Alitalia. “What we are seeing ... is the elimination in service from the weaker carriers such as Air Berlin and Alitalia into North America which definitely is providing opportunities for us,” Smith said. Air Canada expects initial expressions of interest from bidders before year’s end for a previously announced plan to launch its own loyalty program with partners, CE Calin Rovinescu said. Air Canada said it expects costs to go up slightly in the rest of the year due to higher wages. The carrier said adjusted cost per available seat mile for the full year would decrease 3 to 4% in 2017, compared with the 3 to 5% drop it estimated earlier. Air Canada said passenger revenue rose 9.1% to C$4.48b in the Q3, while traffic increased 9%. That helped operating revenue jump nearly 10%. Cost per available seat mile fell 2.1%, on an adjusted basis, Air Canada said. The airline’s profit in the latest quarter more than doubled to C$1.79b or C$6.44 per share, from C$768m or C$2.74 per share a year earlier.<br/>
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Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings CEO Thorsten Dirks has said Star Alliance member Brussels Airlines could operate long-haul flights for Eurowings from Düsseldorf, Germany. “This could include flights to the US. However, we will not change Brussels Airlines’ business portfolio. For example, they are an expert on routes to Africa, but we want to use their competence and air operator’s certificate,” Dirks said. In December 2016, the Lufthansa Group took over 100% of SN Airholding, the parent company of Brussels Airlines, in a deal to fully integrate the Belgian carrier into Lufthansa’s Eurowings Group in 2018. Dirks said the Eurowings long-haul fleet comprises six Airbus A330-200s. A seventh A330 will arrive in December, which was actually planned as a spare aircraft, but will now be used for scheduled services immediately. All these aircraft are part of a wet-lease contract with SunExpress, a joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines. <br/>
Ethiopian Airlines is poised to take delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 and become the variant's first African operator. The Addis Ababa-based Star Alliance says the aircraft will be handed over on 27 October. Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that Ethiopian has 19 787-8s in service and four -9s on order.<br/>
United travellers connecting to flights operated by the carrier’s 19 partner airlines can now receive their boarding pass on their smartphones when using its mobile app. This is the first time a US carrier has enabled this functionality through its mobile app. Previously, travellers using the United app would only be able to receive boarding passes for the United-operated flights in their itinerary. “As we continue to make improvements to the United app, we found that simply allowing our customers to access boarding passes for their entire itinerary within the same app made a big difference,” said Kate Gebo, the airline’s chief customer officer. “Our partnerships with Star Alliance carriers and other partner airlines can take our customers to over a thousand destinations around the world, and we’re excited to be the first US carrier to provide customers with this convenience when connecting to partners.”<br/>