Volaris plans to add new US destinations this year as it sees transborder demand recover with recent strengthening of the Mexican peso, even as the airline expects to turn in an operating loss for 2018. Volaris CE Enrique Beltranena declines to name specific US cities that will join the airline's route map, citing ongoing negotiations, but said that further details should be unveiled in about a month or so. The airline expects to grow system-wide capacity by 9-12% in 2019, with transborder service seeing higher growth than domestic, says Beltranena. However, he notes that domestic capacity growth will be off a larger base since Volaris increased domestic capacity by 14% in 2018. International capacity rose only 6% year-on-year in 2018. "We continue to see possibilities," says Beltranena of growth across the border. <br/>
unaligned
They have to herd grumpy passengers, serve drinks, soothe nerves, endure the pain of unpredictable air travel and save lives in an emergency. And now they have to solicit tips and commissions to supplement their pay? The primary role of flight attendants is passenger safety. But it’s becoming more of a sales job. Airlines now incentivise flight attendants to hawk credit cards and peddle food and beverages for tips from passengers. Some passengers see the changes, particularly tipping, as airline attempts to shift some crew costs from companies to passengers—one more fee, this time for cabin service. As of Jan 1, Frontier Airlines began allowing individual flight attendants to collect tips from passengers, something most other airlines discourage. <br/>
IndiGo reported a significant drop in profit for the December quarter, as the carrier continues its rapid fleet and capacity growth. The airline achieved a profit of INR1.9b (US$26.6m) for the 3 period, its fiscal Q3. This was down by 75% from the INR7.6b profit for the same period a year earlier. The carrier said major reasons for the decline were high fuel prices and currency depreciation. Capacity for the December quarter increased 32.9% year-on-year and is expected to be up by 34% in the current March quarter. “Very few airlines around the world have the operational resilience to absorb such rapid growth,” IndiGo founder and interim CE Rahul Bhatia said. Bhatia noted that although weakness in October pulled down the results, unit revenues rose in November and December. <br/>
Modifications to the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G geared turbofan engines that power IndiGo's Airbus A320neo aircraft are under way, the carrier has confirmed. COO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said the airline had received safety clearance from the US FAA to continue operating the engines and that they were "well within the [safety] limits". He reveals that for IndiGo's PW1100Gs, in-flight engine shutdowns were occurring at a rate of 0.02, as compared with the FAA's limit of 0.05. "The situation is completely under control," says Prock-Schauer. His comments follow a directive issued by India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation Jan 17 to IndiGo and GoAir, instructing them to conduct a series of inspections on the engines to identify and correct potential low-pressure turbine and dry face seal failures. <br/>
Swoop’s expanded summer schedule will feature new transborder flights between Edmonton and both Oakland and Orlando as well as 5 new domestic markets, the Canadian ultra-LCC said Jan 21. The Oakland flights, which will operate 3 times per week, represent a new station for the WestJet subsidiary. They are also the California city’s first service to Canada. The Edmonton-Orlando service will operate once per week. Swoop already serves the Florida city from Hamilton. The airline’s peak summer schedule will feature 7 routes linking Canada and US destinations. “The summer 2019 schedule focuses on realising economies of scale,” Swoop president Steven Greenway said. “We have created a schedule that leverages our existing network while expanding to a limited number of strategic destinations.” <br/>
French leisure carrier Aigle Azur will push eastward this spring with the launch of flights to Kiev in Ukraine and Moscow Domodedovo in Russia. The airline will begin a 3X-weekly service from Paris Orly to Kiev April 18, using an Airbus A320 configured with 12 business- and 168 economy-class seats. Prior to that, March 27 the carrier will begin twice-weekly A320 flights between Marseilles and Moscow Domodedovo. “This improvement in the service to Russia is part of an ongoing development strategy initiated by our CE, Frantz Yvelin, and completes our schedule of flights to Moscow already established by services from our base in Orly,” Aigle Azur sales and marketing director Tiago Martins said. Aigle Azur last year branched into the long-haul market following the acquisition of 2 Airbus A330-200s. <br/>
Unions have rejected a Norwegian Air cost-cutting plan that includes axing a potential 150 jobs at its Dublin airport base. The airline wants to save E200m, and recently told workers of plans to close or shrink bases, including Dublin airport, which could be reduced to 1 craft from 6 next September. However, the 18 unions representing pilots and cabin crew are writing to Norwegian rejecting its approach, and telling management to concentrate first on savings in areas less likely to result in job cuts. Unions also want Norwegian to deal with them collectively rather than country-by-country, and demand an independent analysis of its finances. Norwegian intends cutting the number of craft at its Dublin airport base to 1 or 2 next September. The move could hit 150 of the 250-plus pilots and crew working for the airline there. <br/>