After 10 years in the wilderness -- if a premium airline that flies direct to more than 60 destinations can truly experience a wilderness -- Singapore Airlines is back on top. The Asian carrier was named Airline of the Year at the 2018 Skytrax World Airline awards, an honour it last held in 2008. It beat last year's victor, Qatar Airways, into second place. "We're very ecstatic," Yeoh Phee Teik, Singapore's senior VP of customer experience said Tuesday. The top prize in what is seen as the aviation industry's equivalent of the Oscars, was one of four awards taken home by Singapore. It also claimed best first class, best airline in Asia and best first class seat. Qatar, which held the crown in 2015, 2012 and 2011 -- as well as 2017 -- didn't leave empty handed, with the airline's Group CEO Akbar Al Baker taking to the stage to pick up award after award. The Doha-based carrier took home prizes for best business class, best airline in the Middle East and best business class seat. Story has other details.<br/>
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United raised its profit forecast for 2018 on Tuesday, as average fares and traffic both rose and it trimmed capacity expansion in the face of soaring fuel costs. Shares of United rose as much as 4.2% in trading after the bell as the airline’s Q2 profit also topped analysts’ estimates. The third-largest US airline forecast adjusted profit for the full year at between $7.25 and $8.75 per share, up from its previous range of $7.00 to $8.50 per share. The carrier cut its plans for capacity growth for the year to a rate of between 4.5 and 5%, a company spokesman said. The company said net income fell to $684m in the quarter ended June 30 from $821m a year earlier, hit by an already-flagged $105m write-down of the value of its Brazil routes. Total operating revenue rose 7.7% to $10.78b, while average fares rose 1.5%.<br/>
China's aviation regulator will cut flights by Air China's Boeing 737 fleet by 10% and cancel the licenses of the pilot and co-pilot involved in an emergency descent last week, Chinese state TV said Wednesday. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) will also launch a safety crackdown on the state-backed Chinese flag carrier for three months and fine the airline 50,000 yuan ($7,460), China Central Television said on its WeChat account. The cuts to the carrier's Boeing 737 flight hours amount to 5,400 hours a month, it added. It also suspended the licenses of other staff involved in the emergency incident, which was linked to a co-pilot smoking in the cockpit. BOCOM International analyst Geoffrey Cheng said the punishment would likely have an impact on Air China's flight schedules, especially as it entered a peak travel season, but could also prompt the airline to rationalize its network to cut poorly performing routes. "It could have pros and cons," he said.<br/>
Ethiopian Air said it’s in discussions to back the Nigerian government’s plans for a new national carrier. Tewolde GebreMariam, Ethiopian’s CEO, will hold talks with a Nigerian minister about the proposal on Tuesday at the Farnborough air show in England, he said in an interview. Nigeria said this month that a new airline would begin operations this year, with the name to be revealed at the expo. Africa’s most populous nation has struggled to support a viable home-grown airline for decades, with a succession of carriers collapsing or slashing routes. Ethiopian Air, by contrast, has become Africa’s only consistently profitable carrier by turning Addis Ababa into a crossroads for travel around the continent and beyond, replicating the hub model of Persian Gulf carriers. The network features about 70 global cities and almost 60 across Africa. Ethiopian Air already owns stakes in Malawi Airlines and Togo-based Asky Airlines and aims to secure equity holdings in new carriers in Zambia, Chad, Mozambique and Guinea by the end of the year while helping to manage existing operators in Equatorial Guinea and Democratic Republic of Congo. <br/>
David Neeleman's planned US start-up will eventually partner with Brazil's Azul and TAP Air Portugal for transatlantic flying, with the Airbus A220-300's range central to that long-term strategy. "We can fly across the North Atlantic, down into the Caribbean and into Brazil," says Neeleman in reference to the commitment for 60 A220-300s bound for the unnamed US start-up planned by Neeleman, deliveries of which will begin in 2021. Reports had previously surfaced suggesting that the airline would be called Moxy, but Neeleman says this was merely a working project name. Moxy is already being used by a hotel chain under the Marriott group, says Neeleman. Neeleman says all 60 A220s will come from Airbus's planned A220 assembly facility in Mobile, Alabama. With three years to go before deliveries begin, he expresses confidence that a strong leadership team will be built. The start-up will focus on serving thinner routes including those to secondary cities.<br/>