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Norwegian Air Shuttle’s Argentine unit is planning direct flights from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles, New York and Istanbul as part of a $4.3b expansion in the South American country over the next 10 years. The discount airline is also eyeing service to such cities as Dallas, Honolulu and Johannesburg, said Ole Christian Melhus, head of Norwegian’s operations in Argentina. US flights are scheduled to begin by the end of 2018, after the carrier begins serving domestic and South American destinations, Melhus said. Norwegian is vying for a chunk of the incipient market for low-cost flights in Argentina, where state-run Aerolineas Argentinas has held a virtual monopoly on air travel for the past 15 years. Norwegian has been accumulating planes and expanding destinations at a torrid pace worldwide, from smaller US cities to Southeast Asia, prompting CEO Bjorn Kos to reject assertions that the company is stretched too thin. The plan to establish Argentina as a stronghold in the Americas will require the leasing of between 50 and 70 planes and the hiring of 3,200 employees, Melhus said. Norwegian is looking at Boeing 737-800 jetliners for domestic flights, 737 Max planes for regional service and the 787 Dreamliner or the Airbus SE 321neo for long haul, the company said.<br/>

AirAsia, Malaysia’s flagship budget airline, Wednesday reported lower operating profit for Q3, as an increase in expenses offset a growth in capacity. The carrier’s net operating profit for the three months ended September came in at 374.2m ringgit (US$91.72m), down 7.7% from a year ago. Average fuel price over the quarter rose 7% to $63 per barrel, AirAsia said. Its net profit, however, jumped almost 43% to 505.3m ringgit, helped by lower deferred tax expenses. This beat a forecast for 294.9m ringgit from one analyst, Thomson Reuters data shows. The airline’s capacity over the period rose 14%, while its average fare dropped 2%. AirAsia has been rapidly expanding capacity across Asia to take advantage of robust demand in emerging markets like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, where cheap tickets help stimulate travel. The group is planning to add 12 aircraft to its fleet through operating leases in the fourth quarter, in one of its fastest pace of expansions in the last few years.<br/>

Alitalia, the bankrupt Italian airline searching for a rescuer, will get new uniforms designed by one of Italy’s most prominent stylists, the second re-branding in two years. The airline, which is on state support, said Wednesday that Alberta Ferretti will renew the company’s look "to ensure that all personnel, both ground and flight staff, is comfortable in each working environment and throughout any season." The design collaboration comes at no cost to Alitalia, the carrier said. This is the second time in as many years that Italy’s main carrier is re-designing its clothing line. The previous collection, designed by Ettore Bilotta, was presented in June 2016 and inspired by 50s and 60s style. The Rome-based airline company was declared insolvent May 11 after losing E205m in the first two months of the year and is currently in talks with a number of foreign investors interested in acquiring parts of its business.<br/>

Iraqi budget carrier FlyBaghdad aims to start flights to Europe and India next year, expanding its network beyond the Middle East and is planning a stock market listing in 2020, it CE said Wednesday. FlyBaghdad, owned by Iraqi investors, launched in 2015, competing against state-owned Iraqi Airways, one of the Middle East’s oldest airlines, and several other private carriers. “There is a huge population which are cash rich and are not too many places to visit in Iraq. Everyone is talking about travelling,” CE Ali al-Hamdany said. The Baghdad-based airline operates a fleet of two Boeing 149-seat 737-700 jets and one 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 to northern Iraqi cities Erbil and Sulaimaniya, and to Turkey’s Istanbul and Jordan’s Amman. Hamdany said FlyBaghdad would start talks with local and European regulators early next year to launch the European routes, which he said would target the Iraqi diaspora.<br/>

Kuwaiti budget carrier Jazeera Airways is likely to place an aircraft order next year to expand and replace a fleet of around 15 jets, its CE said Wednesday. Jazeera Airways is considering the Airbus A320neo, Boeing’s 737 MAX, Bombardier’s CSeries, or Embraer’s E2 narrowbody jets, CE Rohit Ramachandran said. The order is likely to be placed by the end of 2018, he said, declining to say how many aircraft Jazeera Airways would be ordering. The Kuwait-listed airline has not decided how it would finance the order, but it is debt free and has $100m in cash reserves, Ramachandran said. Jazeera Airways is adding two jets to its fleet of seven A320 aircraft by February 2018.<br/>

Wizz Air said it would fly two more aircraft from London's Luton airport after securing take-off and landing slots there from failed carrier Monarch Airlines. Wizz, listed in London but with the majority of its operations focused on Europe, said it would increase its fleet at Luton by two aircraft to total seven and pushing up its capacity at the airport by 18%. Earlier this week, British Airways owner IAG bought valuable take-off and landing slots at London's Gatwick airport, beating off competition from other airlines.<br/>

Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is considering an initial public share offering for Gategroup Holding, the airline caterer it bought for US$1.5b in cash last year in a deal that is facing regulatory scrutiny from the Swiss authorities. Zurich-based Gategroup, the world’s second-largest air caterer, said Tuesday that it and its main shareholder, HNA Aviation Air Catering (Hong Kong), were evaluating the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich as a potential listing location, but the structure and timing of any IPO were yet to be determined. On the same day, S&P Global Ratings cut the conglomerate’s creditworthiness assessment to B from B+, due to concerns over its “significant debt maturities” and “meaningfully higher” fundraising costs. HNA, which started out as the small domestic airline Hainan Air, has spent tens of billions of US dollars on overseas acquisitions in the past few years, including stakes in Deutsche Bank and Hilton Worldwide Holdings, and has turned itself into a global conglomerate.<br/>