SIA Group announced high load factors for the month of July, with an average of 85.9%, up 2.3 percentage points year-over-year. Traffic exceeded capacity growth across the group’s 3 airlines. The strongest passenger carriage growth came from the SIA’s LCC arm, Scoot. Traffic grew 24.1%, outpacing capacity expansion by 19.7%. The strongest load factor improvements came from markets to West Asia, in this case India, which grew by 12.4 points to 84.7%. SIA said selected routes to North Asia, India, Thailand and Australia continued to improve. The numbers for parent SIA improved and the airline points to the summer peak season. Load factors and traffic all grew across all markets with routes to Europe and South West Pacific averaging around 90% full. <br/>
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A second round of negotiations between EVA Airways, China Airlines and their respective pilots will take place Thursday and Friday after the authorities intervened in their disputes that may lead to a strike. While union representatives of EVA Air pilots did not reach any common ground with the carrier during their first meeting mediated by Taoyuan City's Department of Labour last week, the two sides were scheduled to hold a second meeting Thursday. For CAL's part, the labour-management negotiation last week was relatively smoother, with both parties able to touch on how flight data should be collected and used to evaluate pilots' performance fairly. Pilots from the two airlines have threatened to strike to demand increased rest time and bonuses, as well as greater autonomy in flight operations. <br/>
Avianca Holdings had an unadjusted net loss of US$35.7m for Q2 2018, reversed from a $10.6m net profit in Q2 2017, as the company faced currency volatility, increased fuel prices, infrastructure disruptions and continuing after-effects of a 51-day pilots’ strike in Q4 2017. On an adjusted basis, in which one-time operational expenses related to the pilots’ strike totalling $29m are figured in, Avianca’s Q2 net loss came to $6.7m for the quarter. Avianca CE Hernan Rincon said the pilots’ strike’s effects, which were evident in a 6.9% YOY decrease in Colombian domestic passenger traffic (as capacity fell 6.8%), “should be mitigated during the second half of this year.” The company is sticking with its previously announced 6% to 8% EBIT guidance range for full-year 2018. <br/>