Serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman is determined to make his next carrier stand out in a market where rivals large and small shoehorn budget-minded travellers into cramped cabins. His proposed low-cost airline, with the working name Moxy, plans to offer passengers novel ways to customise their experience: from legroom to food to price. The founder of JetBlue Airways now wants to create a “technologically advanced" carrier flying a mix of short hops and longer direct routes, all in Airbus SE’s newest single-aisle jet, the A220. “JetBlue was a customer service company that just happened to fly airplanes," Neeleman said. “Moxy will take that a little bit further. It will be a technology company that just happens to fly airplanes.’’ Neeleman, the majority investor in the new venture, is looking to burnish his track record for successfully starting airlines in an industry littered with failures. <br/>
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Thai VietJet Air has welcomed its first Airbus A321, at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. The three-year-old aircraft was transferred from parent airline Vietnam’s VietJet Air, on Sept. 18 and is configured in a 230-seat, single-class cabin. Thai VietJet Air began operations in March 2015 and flies five former VietJet Air A320s. The airline said that by 2021 the fleet would reach a combination of 30 A320 and A321 aircraft, some of which will be neos. The spokesperson also said it would continue to take in aircraft from the parent company, but also from lessors and direct purchase from Airbus. The A321 will first serve domestic routes from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, before transiting to international routes such as Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Haiphong and Da Lat in Vietnam. The airline will also launch Bangkok-Danang from Oct. 13 and Bangkok-Taichung from Nov. 3.<br/>
Europe’s largest regional airline has begun an initiative to bring more women into aviation, in the same week as the UK’s pilots’ union expressed fears that rising costs increasingly mean that only the wealthy can become flightdeck crew. UK-based Flybe has launched “Flyshe,” a program that hopes to inspire young women to consider a wider variety of career options, such as pilots, engineers or senior managers. Independent research recently conducted for Flybe revealed a gender bias in the roles to which children currently aspire. When thinking about future careers, girls were half as likely as boys to aspire to become an aviation engineer and four times less likely to want to be a pilot. Girls were also almost three times more likely than boys to pursue a career as cabin crew. With the airline industry forecast to double in size by 2035, it is predicted that the sector needs 637,000 new pilots to meet global demand. Attracting talent from the 51% of the population not currently applying for these roles is therefore an urgent commercial necessity, Flybe said.<br/>