Allegiant Air has phased out its final Boeing 757-200s, marking an end to the carrier's Hawaii service. An Allegiant Air spokesperson confirms that the airline's final 757 flight was operated Oct 28 between Las Vegas and Honolulu. "Both 757s are retiring as part of the fleet transition," she adds. Allegiant is in the process of replacing its Boeing MD-80s with Airbus A320 family aircraft. The airline acquired 6 757s in 2010 to launch service to Hawaii, and began service 2 years later. However, it cut most of the flights a year later, citing insufficient demand and the high costs of operating the 757s. The airline initially planned to exit Hawaii in Aug 2016, but extended service for another year when it saw better than expected performance. Allegiant was operating only between Las Vegas and Honolulu in its final year of Hawaii operations. <br/>
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Nok Air is hopeful to see a better financial performance next year following its continuous improvement programme to increase operation efficiency and reduce costs, said its CE Piya Yodmani Thursday. The company and its subsidiaries had a net consolidated loss of THB652.73m, compared to over THB1.07b in the same quarter last year. Nok Air VP for marketing Charaspan Srisawadi said that Nok Air planned to reposition itself as a “lifestyle” airline from the current LCC. The airliner has worked to turn around the operation through fleet rationalisation, cost reduction, increased flying ranges, and a boost to fleet capacity utilisation. Piya said the airline aimed its fleet to achieve flying utilisation for an average 11 hours next year from the targeted over 10 hours next month and 9 and a half hours last month. <br/>
Emirates will continue to carefully manage its costs over the coming years even as it eyes more investments and growth, the airline’s chairman said as its first-half profits more than doubled. Emirates reported its financial results for the first half of the 2017-2018 financial year ended Sept 30, 2017. Net profits saw a sharp 111% jump to AED1.7b (US$462m) compared toAED786m in the first half of last year. Revenues increased 6% to AED44.5b from AED41.9b from the earlier year period. “Our margins continue to face strong downward pressure from increased competition, oil prices have risen and we still face weak economic and uncertain political realities in many parts of the world,” said Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and CE of Emirates airline and Group. <br/>
WestJet says a proposed class-action lawsuit that accuses the company of failing to provide a harassment-free workplace for female employees is an abuse of process that should be thrown out of court. The airline argued in a British Columbia Supreme Court Thursday that the legal claim would be better dealt with through a human rights tribunal or workers' compensation board. The company's lawyer said WestJet is not disputing the substance of the allegations but believes the arguments are being heard in an improper venue. "This is not a defence of poor behaviour or an argument that sexual harassment is anything other than completely inappropriate and completely wrong," the attorney told the court. WestJet is being sued over allegations of gender-based discrimination. <br/>
Flybe said Thursday it would continue to work to keep costs down following a profit warning last month, as the increased expense of aircraft maintenance weighed on its bottom line. Profit came in towards the upper end of the new forecast range provided in October, sending the carrier's shares up nearly 5% in early deals. But the rally was short-lived and the stock remains down over 15% since mid-October, when the airline first said that higher aircraft maintenance costs would mean first-half profit would be lower than expected. October's profit warning was another shock to a sector which has faced turmoil this year, with Air Berlin, Alitalia and Monarch all going into administration. Flybe's adjusted profit before tax fell to GBP8.4m in the first half, towards the upper of the GBP5m-10m range given in that warning. <br/>
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved E98m in loans to help fund Ivory Coast national airline Air Cote d'Ivoire's purchase of 5 new Airbus A320s, the bank said Thursday. The loans will contribute to a total investment of E253m that the company says will help Air Cote d'Ivoire become West Africa's premier airline and make Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan the region's main travel hub. The AfDB financing includes a E51m sovereign loan, a E43m private sector loan, and an African Development Fund loan of E4m. The bank's support also includes a E17m partial risk guarantee to ensure the participation of commercial banks, which will contribute E95m. "The transaction is the first of its kind to use the leveraging power of the partial risk guarantee for the transport sector in Africa," the AfDB said. <br/>
GOL’s Q3 net profit rebounded as the airline stuck to a “strong discipline in the supply of seats, high load factors and unrelenting cost control” according to GOL CE Paulo Kakinoff. The airline reported a BRL327.6m (US$103.1m) net profit for Q3 2017, reversing its BRL0.9m net loss in Q3 2016 and representing a net margin of 12.1%, improved on the LCC’s flat net margin a year ago. GOL’s Q3 operating revenue increased 13.2% year-over-year to BRL 2.7b as traffic grew 5.1% YOY to 9.6b RPKs, boosting revenue from cargo, interline passengers coming from domestic flights and implementation of a first bag fee. The airline said revenue from international passengers increased 11.5% YOY during the quarter, representing 13.7% of the LCC’s total net revenue. <br/>