Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, suffered a loss of BRL1.1b in 2018, the company said Thursday, though it generated net income of BRL580m (US$155.7m) in the final quarter. Losses were at the higher end of what was expected. Earlier this year, Gol told investors that losses could come in as much as 63% higher than previously forecast for the year, reaching up to $1.80 per share traded in the New York Stock Exchange. In the end losses came at $1.81 per share. The year has been difficult for Latin American airlines, as they battled weak emerging market currencies as well as high oil prices that only came down toward the tail end of the year. The airline is now forecasting 2019 will be a turnaround year and increased its expected earnings per share by 8% to between $1.3 and $1.5 per share. <br/>
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Southwest Airlines has acknowledged speculation that Berkshire Hathaway – already one of Southwest's largest investors – has interest in acquiring the carrier. Though such speculation has arisen before, renewed suggestions that Berkshire and its CE Warren Buffett might target for Southwest for a takeover surfaced Feb 28. Berkshire Hathaway owned 47.8m Southwest shares – 8.7% of Southwest's total shares – at the end of 2018. Twitter posts fuelled the most recent speculation, and Southwest's stock price jumped about 5% Thursday, closing the day up 4% at US$56.04. Southwest's most recent proxy statement says that in Feb 2018 California-based Primecap Management Company held the largest chunk of its shares, or 12%. <br/>
Juneyao Airlines is seeking rights to launch services to Vladivostok, London and Cairo, as it looks to further expand its international network. It wants to launch a twice-weekly Nanjing-Vladivostok service in June, followed by thrice-weekly services between Shanghai Pudong and London in July. Thereafter, it wants to operate twice-weekly on the Shanghai Pudong-Xian-Cairo route from November. Besides these long-haul services, it is also seeking rights to Sihanoukville in Cambodia, with plans to operate twice-weekly from June. The applications were disclosed by the CAAC. Juneyao Airlines is on an international expansion mode following the arrivals of its Boeing 787-9s. It will launch its first intercontinental service to Helsinki from June, and start services to Melbourne later this year. <br/>
Wizz Air is focused on availing of the Airbus A321neo's lower operating costs rather than its potential to add farther-flung destinations to the network. CE Jozsef Varadi said the airline "primarily" saw its on-order A321neos as representing "a cost initiative rather than a range initiative". He says the A321neo – a first of which is to join Wizz's fleet in the coming days – is set to deliver operational cost savings of 20% versus the A320ceo and 10% versus the A321ceo. Varadi says Wizz is not "planning on extending the range of the airline" with the jets, which will not be used for any significant alteration to the design of its network. Wizz has 184 A321neos on order and holds options on another 90. In addition, the airline has 5 A321ceos and 72 A320neos on order. <br/>