Holiday airline Germania collapsed Tuesday and cancelled all flights immediately, the latest to succumb to turbulence in the European airline industry as it failed to secure financing to navigate a short-term cash squeeze. The insolvency of the German company, which carried about 4m passengers a year, followed the failure of Germany’s second-biggest carrier, Air Berlin, in 2017. Germania cited rising fuel prices, a stronger dollar, delays in integrating new aircraft into its fleet and high maintenance costs. “Unfortunately, we were ultimately unable to bring our financing efforts to cover a short-term liquidity need to a positive conclusion,” CEO Karsten Balke said. The carrier’s 37 aircraft mainly flew German sun-seekers to more than 60 destinations in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The Berlin-based company, founded in 1986, also offered flights to less conventional destinations including Iran, Iraq and Armenia. It said all flights had been halted overnight after it filed for bankruptcy late on Monday. A spokesman for the airline’s administrators said it was unclear whether operations could resume and whether the company could continue. CEO Balke thanked Germania’s staff and apologized to passengers who had booked directly and would not be entitled to alternative flights. <br/>
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WestJet will scale back capacity growth this year to focus on more profitable routes, as it looks to cut costs and lure higher-paying customers to turn it around after a turbulent 2018, CE Ed Sims said Tuesday. Shares surged more than 3% in late morning trading in Toronto, after it beat analyst estimates for profit in Q4 by containing costs and said it anticipates strong 2019 bookings. WestJet aims to broaden its share of higher-paying passengers by introducing fees for perks like priority boarding and added legroom, along with its new Dreamliner business class service. The airline will take a “prudent approach” to capacity as it grows its budget carrier Swoop and Dreamliner business class service this year, said CFO Harry Taylor. WestJet will boost capacity by 6 to 8% in 2019, down from its previous forecast of 6.5 to 8.5%. Investors have been concerned the airline has been overly ambitious as it introduces the Dreamliners, grows Swoop and negotiates with a unionized workforce in 2019. Competition, higher costs and the threat of a strike by WestJet’s pilots last year helped drag down the stock by 32% over the past 12 months. “We know we have to earn the right to grow, particularly in our premium cabins,” Sims said.<br/>
Indian investigators have disclosed that the crew of a GoAir Airbus A320 shut down the wrong engine after experiencing powerplant vibrations following a birdstrike on take-off. The aircraft had been departing runway 09 at Delhi, bound for Mumbai, on 21 June 2017. At around 115kt the aircraft suffered a birdstrike on the right-hand CFM International CFM56 powerplant. While an automated advisory alerted to high vibrations on the right-hand engine, this was not called out by the first officer, says the Indian government’s inquiry into the event. Story has details of the incident.<br/>
Ireland-based capacity provider Stobart Air—the airline involved in an attempted Virgin Atlantic-led takeover of UK regional operator Flybe—has won a contract to operate flights to Amsterdam Schiphol on behalf of KLM Cityhopper. The move is interesting because Air France-KLM has agreed to acquire a 31% stake in Virgin Atlantic, which is seeking to boost feeder traffic to its long-haul network through its proposed acquisition of Flybe. Stobart Air is owned by Stobart Group, one of the members of the Connect Airways consortium vying for control of Flybe, and the intention is for Stobart Air’s operations to eventually be folded into the Connect Airways group. In a Feb. 4 statement, Stobart Air said it had agreed to provide an Embraer E195 jet on an aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance basis to operate up to eight flights a day for KLM Cityhopper from Amsterdam. <br/>
Hundreds of passengers were left stranded in Britain Tuesday after European aviation authorities suspended Turkmenistan Airlines over safety concerns. The isolated central Asian republic's flag carrier provides services from London and Birmingham to the Indian city of Amritsar which is popular with Britain's Punjabi community. Britain's Civil Aviation Authority cited a notice from its European counterpart announcing the suspension of flights on Monday. "The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has suspended Turkmenistan Airlines flights to and from the EU pending confirmation that it meets international air safety standards," the UK Foreign Office said. The airline itself provided no information on its website. The phone number it listed was not in service and no one replied to emails. The website still listed all of its European destinations but was not taking further bookings from Paris or Frankfurt. The airline also links Paris and Frankfurt with popular Asian destinations such as New Delhi and Bangkok via the Turkmen capital Ashgabat. It was still taking bookings from Moscow and Saint Petersburg to Ashgabat and Bangkok. The carrier says on its website that it flies around 3,000 passengers a day. It was not immediately clear what prompted the suspension or when flights might resume.<br/>
With the sale of its ExpressJet Airlines subsidiary and a continuing fleet upgrade, SkyWest is looking toward more focused operations in 2019. The sale of regional carrier ExpressJet to ManaAir, a new company with United Airlines as a minority stakeholder, was completed Jan. 22. That leaves SkyWest with its regional SkyWest Airlines subsidiary and its leasing business. “With the completion of the ExpressJet sell to ManaAir … we successfully mitigated a significant risk to our model. We believe our ability to focus on one operating entity in SkyWest Airlines will help us better achieve our objectives and deliver an exceptional product for our partners,” SkyWest president and CEO Chip Childs said. “There’s a lot of opportunity here with a single carrier ... it’s been well over a decade since SkyWest was on its own,” he said. “There’s no question that a significant portion of why we strategically made this decision was—no question—efficiency, [and] no doubt, increased focus.”<br/>
Virgin Australia has appointed former DP World stevedores and Queensland Rail boss Paul Scurrah to replace John Borghetti as its CE. The logistics veteran will take over the top job at Australia's second-largest airline on March 25, Virgin said Wednesday. He will be tasked with stabilising the airline's finances after six unprofitable years. Scurrah worked at Qantas in the early 1990s, and later at Ansett, where he rose to the position of general manager of sales and marketing during its administration. He later held senior roles at Flight Centre and other travel and tourism operators. Virgin chairman Elizabeth Bryan said Scurrah was a "highly regarded business leader" with "strong leadership credentials". "Paul’s highly relevant transport and logistics expertise and strong commercial background make him the ideal candidate to consolidate the group’s achievements and continue to build momentum into the future,” Bryan said.<br/>