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WestJet Airlines beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit on Tuesday, helped by higher traffic and proceeds from a sale-leaseback deal for three aircraft, but the Canadian carrier still faces the impact of the global grounding of the 737 MAX. WestJet, which operated 13 MAX planes, is eying a return of the Boeing jets to service during Q3. The jets were grounded worldwide in March following two deadly crashes involving the model. WestJet CE Ed Sims said the company would be “firm and uncompromising with Boeing in terms of their understanding of the challenges that it has created for us,” at its annual general meeting in Calgary. “But it is also a time for understanding of their challenges and to work with them (Boeing) to turn a short-term crisis into the best possible opportunity for us longer term.” While the carrier would not provide a 2019 financial forecast, CFO Harry Taylor told analysts earlier in the day that cost per available seat mile would be affected during Q2 because of the grounding. Canada’s second-largest carrier has been adding international flights and wooing affluent travelers to boost profit.<br/>

Jet Airways' pilots' union has appealed to India's top court to direct State Bank Of India to release interim funding to try to revive the grounded airline, according to a court filing made on Tuesday which was reviewed by Reuters. Jet halted all flight operations indefinitely on April 17 after its lenders rejected its plea for emergency funds, potentially the end of the line for what was once India's largest private airline. The debt-laden airline has struggled to compete with low-cost carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet that now dominate Indian skies, and its mounting losses forced it to ground its planes. The National Aviator's Guild said in its petition that SBI's decision to not give the interim funding of 15b rupees ($216m), after agreeing to it in March as part a resolution plan, has resulted in the airline being grounded and has impacted the livelihood of Jet's 22,000 employees. This "singular decision" by SBI was responsible for the operations of Jet Airways coming to a stop and "substantial de-valuation/depreciation in the value of Jet", the union said in the court filing. SBI, as part of the resolution plan, has also invited bids from potential investor to take a stake in Jet. So far no bidders have publicly shown interest and the final bids are expected to be submitted by May 10. The union has asked the Supreme Court to direct the civil aviation ministry and aviation regulator to decline any further de-registration requests for Jet's leased aircraft and not to reassign its slots to other airlines permanently, according to the filing.<br/>

Norwegian Air filled more seats on its planes and earned higher revenues per customer in April while dealing with the grounding of its 18 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, it said, sending the company’s shares sharply higher in early trade. The company said last month that the global grounding of 737 MAX jets, which followed deadly crashes of airliners in Indonesia and Ethiopia, could scupper Norwegian’s plan to return to profitability this year. So far however, the carrier has managed to limit the impact from the grounding of around 11% of its fleet by combining flights and offering passengers alternative departures, it said. Norwegian’s load factor, the percentage of seats sold, rose to 86.1% from 83.0% a year earlier, beating an analyst forecast of 85.9%. Yield rose to 0.41 Norwegian crowns ($0.0471) from 0.33 crowns in March, topping the 0.38 crowns expected by analysts in a Reuters poll. While analysts had anticipated an income boost, there had been uncertainty about the impact of the 737 MAX groundings, as well as a strike among pilots at rival SAS. “Overall, the traffic report implies that (earnings) estimates should increase,” wrote Pareto Securities, which holds a buy recommendation on the stock with a share price target of 100 crowns.<br/>

Jeju Air has pointed to solid growth of its international network as the key driver of a 25% increase in its Q1 operating profit to a record KRW57.8b ($49.5m). Revenue for the three months to the end of March rose 27% to W391 billion, driven by growth in its Chinese and Southeast Asian networks, and aided by a 3% rise in yield on domestic services. The carrier commented that the increase in revenue was influenced by the peak season and its “optimal route portfolio”. Net profit was up 18% to W42.6b, as foreign currency charges took some of the shine off the operating result. ASKs for the budget airline rose a whopping 30.1% as it added eight aircraft to its fleet and increased utilisation to 14.4 hours per aircraft. However, RPK growth of 27.5% resulted in a modest 1.5-point fall in load factor to an otherwise impressive 90.4%.<br/>

Serbia’s flagship airline Air Serbia was the sole bidder for subsidized flights to 12 international destinations from Konstantin Veliki airport in the southern city of Nis, the infrastructure ministry said on Tuesday. In a statement, the ministry said Air Serbia, 49% owned by United Arab Emirates airline Etihad Airways, made the only valid offer, although other companies expressed interest. The Serbian government holds the remainder of shares in Air Serbia. “The signing of the contract with the representatives of Air Serbia will be organized in the coming days,” the statement said. Last month, the government said it had allocated 600m Serbian dinars ($5.7m) to subsidize airline flying “in the public interest” from Serbia’s second biggest airport, around 220 km south of Belgrade. The flights set to last until 2023 will link Nis, Serbia’s second biggest city, twice a week with Nuremberg, Hannover, Friedrichshafen, Frankfurt and Karlsruhe in Germany, Gothenburg in Sweden, Bologna and Rome in Italy, Salzburg in Austria, Budapest in Hungary and Ljubljana in Slovenia.<br/>