As one airline with transatlantic ambitions came into land for the last time, another was making plans to take off — hoping to disrupt one of the world’s busiest and most important routes. JetBlue will take on incumbents such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and United Airlines with its plans to fly between London and New York from 2021. It is also taking a big gamble as it prepares to enter a crowded and fiercely competitive market, which is littered with failures. Only weeks before JetBlue laid out its ambitions, Wow Air announced it would make no more flights across the Atlantic as it declared bankruptcy. As Wow’s example shows, there is a lot at stake for JetBlue. London Heathrow to New York JFK is “the highest capacity commercial long-haul route in the world”, according to one analyst. <br/>
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A woman in southern China has been detained for flipping 6 coins at a plane to pray for a safe trip, in the fifth such incident this year. The passenger was seen on surveillance camera footage throwing coins just before boarding China Southern Airlines flight CZ8427 from Nanning to Bangkok Saturday. The airline said that the woman, a first-time flier, threw the coins to pray for blessings. The coins were all found and the flight took off after a delay of 78 minutes. “Please don’t be superstitious,” China Southern said. “Abide by aviation safety regulations when taking planes and don't throw things.” China has seen numerous such incidents since the first reported case in 2017, when an elderly woman threw a handful of coins at a China Southern Airlines plane. <br/>
Silver Airways has begun flying its new ATR 42-600 aircraft within Florida, the first step in its plan to replace its fleet of Saab 340Bs and expand its network. The Fort Lauderdale-based regional carrier operated the first revenue flight between its base and Key West April 22. “The new ATR 600 series aircraft will be transformational for Silver Airways and is ideal for our short-haul domestic and nearby international operations,” says Steve Rossum, CE of Silver and Seaborne Airlines. ATR has delivered 3 ATR 42-600s to Silver with another 5 due this year, the airline says. Silver also plans to take up to 3 ATR 72-600s in 2019 pending regulatory approval. The carrier has commitments to purchase up to 50 ATR turboprops. It plans to eventually replace its fleet of 21 Saab 340B turboprops with ATRs. <br/>
Vietnam start-up Bamboo Airways has signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the possibility of services from Hanoi to Prague. “Prague International…greatly appreciates Bamboo Airways' plans and is ready to launch a cooperative program to support the operation of direct flights from Vietnam,” says the airline. “Under the agreement, Prague International Airport will apply many incentives to Bamboo Airways in licensing the hours of exploitation; market research, research and promotion; policies on storage, landing and passenger service charges in the first years of operation.” Bamboo says that the Czech transport ministry is also behind the plan, and that 70,000 Vietnamese live in the Czech Republic. <br/>
Chinese LCC Spring Airlines overcame higher fuel costs and a weakened currency to post a 2018 net profit of CNY1.5b (US$218.1m), up 19.1% from CNY1.26b in 2017. Total operating income increased 19.4% year-over-year to CNY13.1b, while operating costs climbed 22.9% to CNY11.8b, with fuel accounting for 33.8% of the total. Excluding fuel, however, costs decreased 1.3% as the result of “improvements in major cost items,” the carrier said. Marketing and sales costs decreased 25.4%, thanks to controlled and targeted marketing on digital platforms, the airline said. Spring said it remains competitive by following a “2 high, 2 low” strategy: high aircraft utilisation and density, and low management and marketing costs. The airline said it would also continue to focus on ancillary revenue, which totaled CNY610m in 2018. <br/>
Emirates Airline and SpiceJet signed an MOU April 22 for a reciprocal codeshare agreement aimed at opening new routes and destinations between India and Africa, Europe, North America and the Middle East. Upon approval by the necessary regulators, Emirates passengers from Dubai will have access to 67 weekly SpiceJet flights to 6 additional Indian cities: Amritsar, Calicut, Jaipur, Madurai, Mangalore and Pune. Emirates currently flies to 11 Indian cities from Dubai. In turn, passengers on all of SpiceJet’s services from Delhi, Jaipur, Kochi, Mumbai, Pune and 46 other domestic originating points will have access to Emirates’ network to Africa, Europe and North America, with “optimised scheduling” configured to reduce transit time, and single reservation booking now enabled for connecting flights. <br/>
After a 4-month suspension because of a dispute between Malaysia and Singapore, Malaysia LCC Firefly has resumed scheduled service between the two countries, with the first flight landing at Singapore Seletar April 21. This also marked the first scheduled operation of Seletar’s new terminal since its opening in November. Firefly has restarted with twice-daily ATR 72-500 flights between Kuala Lumpur-Subang and Seletar through April 28. From April 29, frequency will increase to 6X daily. Malaysia and Singapore were embroiled in an airspace dispute when Malaysia opposed Seletar’s ILS procedures, which were set up by Singapore to facilitate Firefly’s move from Changi to Seletar. The two ministries later agreed to establish a ‘”GPS-based ILS” procedure as a compromise. <br/>