WestJet said Tuesday uncertainty from a labour dispute, along with higher expenses would weigh on Q2 earnings, after the carrier missed analyst estimates for Q1, sending its shares down to their lowest in over two years. The carrier is negotiating a first contract with its unionised pilots, even as it plans to launch a new budget carrier in June, and expand premium seating. Pilots are expected to decide by May 10 whether to give their union a mandate to strike. “What we’ve seen over the last two weeks is a significant deferral of bookings,” CE Ed Sims said. Airlines are also battling rising fuel costs as oil prices rebound from multi-year lows in 2016 to touch $70 per barrel. <br/>
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Southwest, dealing with a fatal fan-blade fracture and engine explosion last month, plummeted even further behind the rest of the pack than it has been in recent times in the on-time arrivals derby. Southwest finished the month with 76.7% of flights arriving on time in April. That was down from 77.8% in March. Delta, United and American all finished well above 80% for April, and all three had better on-time arrival marks than they had in March. Immediately after the Southwest Flight 1380 fatal incident April 17, Southwest announced it would conduct urgent tests of engine fan blades on all its Boeing 737s out of an abundance of caution. That move quickly caused numerous Southwest flights to be delayed or outright cancelled. <br/>
Shares in South Korea’s budget carrier Jin Air tumbled as much as 9% to a six-week low Wednesday after a South Korean TV channel reported the transport ministry is considering cancelling the airline’s license. The transport ministry internally discussed last week whether to cancel Jin Air’s license after discovering Cho Hyun-min, the daughter of the chairman of Jin Air’s parent Hanjin Group, had been a registered board member of the airline despite being a US citizen, violating South Korean transport law, TV channel KBS reported Tuesday. A spokeswoman for Jin Air said the company is cooperating with the investigation and declined further comment. <br/>
Budget carrier Norwegian Air remains confident of its business model, its CE said Tuesday, less than a week after the company said it had rejected two takeover proposals from British Airways owner IAG. IAG last month took a 4.6% stake in the airline, which in turn triggered interest from other suitors, according to earlier statements from Norwegian’s board. “Acquisition interest from several parties confirms the sustainability of the business model,” CE Bjoern Kjos said. Loss-making Norwegian is in the midst of a massive transatlantic expansion aimed at turning around the company’s fortunes by replicating the low-cost model that worked for European flights. Analysts on average expect the airline’s revenue to grow by an 84% between 2017 and 2020 to US$7b. <br/>