unaligned

Air Italy will start flying to Chicago next year, a move likely to revive a dispute between its minority shareholder Qatar Airways and USrivals trying to squeeze Gulf operators out of their domestic market. Formerly known as Meridiana, Air Italy is the country’s second-largest airline, behind ailing Alitalia, and state-owned Qatar Airways holds a 49% stake in it. Air Italy will fly to Chicago three times a week from Milan Malpensa airport starting from May 14, 2019, COO Rossen Dimitrov said. Since 2015 the largest US carriers — Delta, American Airlines and United — have argued their Gulf rivals are being unfairly subsidised by their governments, distorting competition. Gulf airlines have always denied those accusations and in May the companies reached a voluntary agreement, saying they would not add new flights to the United States. However, Air Italy has been flying to New York and Miami since June and will start serving San Francisco and Los Angeles from April 2019. That has drawn criticism from an alliance of US-based airlines grouped in the “Partnership for Open & Fair Skies”, that Qatar Airways is using Air Italy to offer additional flights between the US and Europe, despite the agreement.<br/>

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is investigating an incident in which a Virgin Australia ATR 72-600 suffered non-simultaneous flameouts in both engines during the same flight. The incident involved aircraft VH-FVN, which was operating the Sydney-Canberra route on 13 December. “While the aircraft was descending through 11,000ft in heavy rain, the right engine’s power rolled back (decreased) and the engine flamed out,” says the ATSB. “The engine automatically re-started within five seconds. The descent continued and, while passing through 10,000 ft, the left engine’s power also rolled back and that engine flamed out before automatically relighting. The crew selected manual engine ignition for the remainder of the flight and the landing.” The ATSB has classified the occurrence as a serious incident. There were no injuries to passengers or crew, and the aircraft was not damaged.<br/>

Hong Kong Airlines has been rocked by the resignations of its co-chairman, vice-chairman and CFO. Tang King-shing, Hong Kong’s former police chief, resigned late last month as vice-chairman of the board at the carrier, citing personal reasons. CFO Jacky Lui Jiaqi and chairman Zhang Kui have also left, two sources said. The resignations come as HNA Group – the debt-ridden Chinese conglomerate which controls the carrier – seeks to offload, or cut, its stake in Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express. The airline’s website lists among its leadership newly appointed chairman Hou Wei, president Wang Liya, vice-presidents Vitoo Zhan Xuewei and Ben Wong Ching-ho, and chief marketing officer George Liu Jiang. Names removed from that list since October include co-chairman Zhang, who has decided to pursue other interests. It was not clear when he left the company. Lui resigned as finance chief on November 16 and left on December 7, a source said. Zhang was co-chairman along with Mung Kin-keung, who is the chairman of entertainment company China Star Entertainment. It was unclear whether Mung remained in his post.<br/>

Indigo Partners, the US-based private equity firm that specializes in ultra-LCCs, is looking to invest up to $75m in Icelandic carrier WOW Air. The US company, which emerged in late November as a potential investor in WOW Air after an acquisition attempt by Icelandair collapsed, has been in negotiations with airline executives over its possible future involvement as a major shareholder. WOW said, “Following successful completion of due diligence, the parties will work to close the investment as soon as practicable whereby Indigo Partners will acquire some of the shares in WOW … pursuant to a Share Purchase Agreement.” The agreement would be between a special purpose vehicle “formed and controlled by Indigo Partners (the ‘Indigo Investor’) and other shareholders of WOW. Additionally, the Indigo Investor contemplates issuing a new super senior convertible loan to WOW to fund the recovery of its business. In the aggregate, Indigo’s investment, assuming successful diligence, structuring and documentation would be for an amount up to $75 million.”<br/>

JetBlue Airways has renewed its call for the US DoT to review concerns that a proposed combination of transatlantic joint ventures between Delta, Virgin Atlantic and Air France-KLM could negatively affect competition and slot allocation at London Heathrow Airport (LHR). In a Dec. 17 motion to the DOT, lawyers for JetBlue called on DOT to compile a “complete and up-to-date” analysis of current market conditions before granting the airlines antitrust immunity (ATI) application, adding that such a move would be “consistent with past precedent.” JetBlue said that new issues have arisen since its most recent motion that further support the need for DOT to review the possible anti-competitive implications of the proposed tie-up. Among those issues is the status of UK carrier flybe, which has received competition remedy slots at LHR, and is looking for a buyer. In early December, Virgin CEO Craig Kreeger confirmed the carrier is considering acquiring flybe. In addition, Italian flag carrier Alitalia is seeking to join the Delta-Virgin-Air France-KLM JV, prompting JetBlue to call on DOT to review what those changes would mean for slot allocation at LHR and other slot-constrained airports, including Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles de Gaulle and London Gatwick.<br/>

Frontier Airlines announced three new nonstop routes from Denver on Tuesday, building out its network from its hometown and biggest hub. The new service will begin in March, when Frontier connects Denver to Baltimore/Washington; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Hartford, Connecticut. Story has full schedule details. “With the addition of these three new routes, we now serve 93 cities non-stop from Denver,” Tyri Squyres, VP of marketing for Frontier Airlines, said. “As Denver’s hometown airline, we are extremely proud to continue to not only make flying more affordable but to expand the number of non-stop destinations. In fact, in the last year alone, we announced or kicked off 37 new routes from Denver.” Frontier already offered some service from Fort Lauderdale. The carrier does not currently fly from BWI or Hartford.<br/>

Regional carrier CemAir, grounded Dec. 13 by the South African Civil Aviation Authority for alleged operational violations, won a court battle Dec. 18 to have its air operator’s certificate restored. CemAir’s AOC was suspended after the SACAA determined that the airline did not have a qualified staff member in the position of “responsible person: flight operations” and had operated some of its aircraft outside permitted weight and balance limits. The airline strongly rejected both claims and took its case to the country’s Supreme Court Dec. 18, submitting an urgent application to overturn the regulator’s decision. The court agreed late Dec. 18 that the suspension should be rescinded. “In the coming hours, we will announce our plans to restore service as soon as possible. We thank you for your continued support and offer our sincerest apology to everyone affected by our grounding,” CemAir said in a statement on its website. The carrier, which operates a 21-strong fleet of Beechcraft 1900D turboprops, Bombardier CRJ 100/200/900s and Bombardier Dash 8-100/Q300/Q400 turboprops, intends to resume operations Dec. 20, according to South African media reports.<br/>