unaligned

Lion Air said Monday passenger numbers dropped by less than 5% in November compared to a year earlier, after one of its Boeing 737 MAX jets crashed in late October killing all 189 people on board. "There was a decline but it wasn't too significant," the airline's CEO Edward Sirait said. "It was under 5% compared to the traffic at the same month last year." He said Lion Air did not "clearly understand" whether the crash was responsible for the fall in traffic in November, which he said was a low season for travel. The airline, Indonesia's largest, is privately owned and does not publicly release traffic statistics or financial results. Sirait said last week Lion Air was considering cancelling orders for 737 MAX jets but it had not yet made a decision. Sources told Reuters that relations between the airline and Boeing had worsened in a spat over responsibility for the crash. The airline has 190 Boeing jets worth $22b at list prices waiting to be delivered, on top of 197 already taken, making it one of the largest US export customers. Bankers and some analysts say Lion Air and Southeast Asian rivals over-expanded and would be comfortable with fewer orders.<br/>

Virgin Atlantic said Friday it was aiming to ensure its pre-Christmas flights went ahead as scheduled after hundreds of its pilots voted to strike from Dec. 22 until Dec. 25 in a dispute over union recognition. The Professional Pilots Union (PPU) said its members were taking action because Virgin Atlantic was refusing to recognise it and it had been excluded from talks about changes to benefits. “It’s the last straw; Virgin Atlantic have consistently refused to recognize the PPU as a legitimate and independent union, essentially disenfranchising our members,” said the PPU’s Steve Johnson. “Our door is - and has always been - open to Virgin to take the necessary steps to prevent any disruption for Christmas travellers.” The PPU says it represents more than 400 of the airline’s pilots while Virgin Atlantic says about 30% are members. “A small number of our pilots have voted for industrial action,” Virgin Atlantic said. “Our absolute priority is to ensure that all of our customers can continue their journeys as planned this Christmas and we’re working hard to protect all of their trips.” The PPU said it would hold another four-day strikes from Dec. 30 to Jan. 2 and from Jan. 4 to 7.<br/>

Troubled low-cost African carrier Fastjet warned Friday it may have to go into administration, shut shop or sell itself as it had only enough cash to keep it in business for another seven days. The airline, which had a cash balance of $6.8m as of Thursday, said it might have to formally hire insolvency advisers for the process if its cash balance does not improve. Fastjet, launched in 2012, has been cash-strapped for more than two years due to tough conditions in its home market, Tanzania. The airline, which operates in Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, warned at the end of September that it needed to boost its finances within days to survive. The airline had planned for additional funds and equity refinancing in November to raise its capital base by at least $40m. Fastjet said Friday that discussions with stakeholders so far had been positive, but there was no guarantee of a successful outcome. It also said it had conditionally raised about GBP550,000 via an open offer of 55.17m shares.<br/>

Pilots have blamed “bad signage” at Gatwick Airport after nearly running out of runway while taking off. A report by the Air Accident Investigation Branch found the mistake in March could have caused a potentially disastrous “overrun” after the Boeing 787-9 began its take-off 417 metres beyond the proper starting point. The Buenos Aires-bound jet carrying 270 people left the ground with only 600 metres of runway to spare. The Norwegian Airlines aircraft was one of five which failed to start its take-off from the right location at Gatwick's standby runway between September 2017 and March this year. The report noted: “After departure both pilots commented that there was not much runway remaining at lift-off.” The report added: "The crew did not identify the beginning of the runway and taxied forward to the landing threshold before beginning their take-off. "This decreased the take-off distance available and meant that the aircraft did not meet regulated performance requirements for its actual take-off weight. The distance available for the take-off would have been insufficient had an aircraft engine failed and had the crew decided to stop." The repeated problems on the standby runway follow a proposal by Gatwick bosses to bring it into routine use for departures as part of a plan to increase the airport’s capacity. Gatwick said it had agreed to make it easier for pilots to find the beginning of the runway, particularly at night.<br/>

Mexico's Volaris has downplayed the impact of the cancellation of a new airport for Mexico City, saying its near-term growth is not tied to expansion out of the Mexican capital. "In our five-year plan, we didn't have plans for expansion in Mexico City and the surrounding metropolitan area," Volaris CE Enrique Beltranena said. "Our concentration of capacity is not as high as the other Mexican airlines in Mexico City." Volaris is by far the country's largest domestic carrier, with 38% of scheduled capacity within Mexico, FlightGlobal schedules data show. Aeromexico is in second place with a 23% share, followed by Viva Aerobus with 19% and Interjet with 17%. At Mexico City, however, Volaris holds only a 9% share of the capacity originating from the capital's airport. The ultra low-cost carrier is the third largest airline at the airport, after Aeromexico and Interjet with a 40% and 15% share, respectively. "We are using our slots [at Mexico City] in the best way we can," says Beltranena. "We are focused on punctuality and utilisation." <br/>