Air Arabia on Sunday posted a 16% jump in Q1 profit, citing a rise in passenger numbers. The Middle East budget airline reported a full-year loss for 2018 after booking impairments mainly attributable to its exposure to collapsed private equity firm Abraaj. Air Arabia made a net profit of 128m dirhams ($34.9m) in the three months to March 31 on revenue up 17% to 1b dirhams, it said. The airline carried 2.8m passengers, which it said was up 8% year on year, and filled an average of 84% of seats, 3% more than a year ago. Chairman Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohamed al-Thani warned that oil prices, geopolitical and economic developments are affecting trading conditions but said the airline was confident in the “long-term fundamentals” of the region’s aviation sector. CE Adel Ali had said on April 30 that the entire exposure to Abraaj was booked in impairments in the 2018 results so the airline could concentrate on its business. “The legal side is taking care of it,” he said. The airline said in January that it had launched legal proceedings against Abraaj founder Arif Naqvi.<br/>
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The new owners of ailing UK regional airline Flybe are working to recoup tens of millions of pounds being held by companies that process its customers’ card payments. Flybe warned in January that it was facing a “very bleak” working capital situation as the credit card acquirers retained cash as collateral in case the airline failed to meet charges for their services. Connect Airways — the consortium consisting of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Air and Cyrus Capital that has owned the airline since March — now hopes to unlock that money, confirmed by two people familiar with the takeover as being in the tens of millions of pounds. Christine Ourmières-Widener, Flybe CE, said the company would reclaim the money once relations with the acquirers returned to normal, which was proceeding “step by step”. “You don’t unwind the critical situation we were facing suddenly,” she said. “We hope at some point to go back to the situation before the crisis but it’s taking a number of steps.” The failure of Flybe and the acquirers to come to a deal almost led to the collapse of the sale, with Flybe calling in insolvency advisers as negotiations faltered. Ourmières-Widener declined to say whether Flybe would be profitable in 2018-19 — it made a pre-tax loss of GBP9.4m the year before — but said there was “a potential for a good performance . . . if the shareholders want to do investment sooner rather than later”.<br/>
India’s government sees little hope of a bidder emerging for debt-laden Jet Airways Ltd, two senior finance ministry officials said, even as thousands of employees plead with the government for a rescue. Parties that had initially expressed interest in Jet, which is saddled with roughly $1.2b of debt, have so far failed to make firm bids to bail it out, increasing the odds that it could soon face bankruptcy proceedings. “There is little scope in the revival of Jet,” said one official, adding that if a bidder emerged, the government was still willing to return slots to the private airline which have temporarily been given to rivals. A second senior finance ministry official said it was only a matter of time before someone dragged Jet to the National Company Law Tribunal - India’s bankruptcy court - for recovery of dues from Jet. It will most likely be one of Jet’s creditors and not its lenders that do so, said both the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Unions have been pleading with the government to ensure the airline is rescued. Last week, in a letter to the prime minister seen by Reuters, its pilots union urged the government to intervene and speed up the bid process for the airline and stop the deregistration of its aircraft by its lessors. Jet had a fleet of more than 120 aircraft but more than half have been deregistered and repossessed by lessors.<br/>
Fumes in the cockpit and cabin of a Spirit Airlines jet flying from Los Angeles to Denver prompted the crew to bring the plane back to Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, authorities said. Flight 630, an Airbus A321, landed without incident around 9:50 a.m., said an FAA spokesman. One passenger was taken to a hospital for evaluation and others were being accommodated on other flights, said a spokesman for Spirit Airlines. The airplane was taken out of service for inspection by a maintenance team, Dombrowski said, describing the fumes as an "unknown odour." The Los Angeles Fire Department said in its summary of the incident that the aircraft's oxygen masks were deployed as a precaution but Dombrowski said the masks were not deployed.<br/>
Fiji Airways has cited higher fuel costs and adverse foreign currency movements as the drivers behind a 42% fall in profit before tax in 2018 to F$55.3m ($25.8m). The cost increases outstripped a 10% rise in revenue to F$1.02b for the year ended 31 December 2018. The airline, which is majority-owned by the Fijian government, did not disclose a net profit figure. CE Andre Viljoen said that the year was one of “significant highs and lows”. “Fuel price increases alone accounted for F$31.5m being taken off our targeted bottom line, while unfavourable foreign exchange variations added another negative impact of F$8.2m. Our network and fleet size grew, which means our manpower requirements grew as well, contributing to increased cost. Despite these and other industry wide challenges, our team responded by diligently managing cost where possible and continuing with our infrastructure and fleet investment strategy.” That investment included the start of work on its new training centre, which will host three full-motion simulators when it opens later this year. Other key developments during the year included adding three Viking Air Twin Otter turboprops and a Boeing 737 Max 8 to its fleet, and introduced a new route from Nadi to Tokyo Narita. It also launched the Oneworld Connect programme and signed new and expanded codeshare agreements with carriers including British Airways, Singapore Airlines and Alaska.<br/>