EasyJet said it would meet expectations in 2019 despite a worse trading environment than last year as worries over Brexit and economic weakness in Europe hurt consumer demand. EasyJet had already said last month that its outlook for the second half of the year was more cautious because European travellers were holding off booking their summer holidays for fear of how the Brexit process will pan out. Moving into the summer, EasyJet said that forward bookings for Q3 were 3 percentage points behind last year at 72%. "It's not so much that there isn't any demand out there, but it's definitely a tougher trading environment, which has an effect on the pricing," CE Johan Lundgren said. EasyJet said its performance in the 6 months to March 31 was in line with expectations. <br/>
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EasyJet has warned that airports are still not ready to fend off the sort of drone disruption that brought the carrier’s UK hub to a standstill late last year. EasyJet pinned some of the blame for widening first-half losses on the disruption at Gatwick, which cost it GBP10m as flights were suspended for 36 hours and about 140,000 passengers were affected in total. “It’s not enough to see airports are investing in equipment, they don’t have the authority to use them, they can’t train with them,” Johan Lundgren, EasyJet’s CE, said of airport’s drone defences. A spokesman for Airports Council International said: “When it comes to responsibilities for deployment and permits and the like — this is still being determined in many European countries and getting answers to those questions is a major priority for the airport industry". <br/>
A payment intermediary from the Nordic region is in talks to extend the time it holds on to consumers' money owed to the Thomas Cook Group. The firm is seeking to retain millions of pounds of holidaymakers’ money, which is usually kept for 2 days, for several weeks,. Accountancy firm Deloitte has been retained by a number of other card acquirers to advise them on their exposure to the business. It comes after a week in which the tour operator reported a half-year loss of around GBP1.5b, largely due to a write-down relating to its merger with MyTravel in 2007. Shares also slumped a further 40% Friday after analysts at Citi said there was zero value to its equity. "We remain in discussions with our Nordic card supplier and we are confident that we will reach an acceptable solution in the coming days," said the company. <br/>
Southwest Airlines plans to begin constructing its first maintenance hangar at the Denver International this summer. According to a representative for carrier, the decision to add a new hangar in Denver was based on flight activity in the city and the airline’s “aggressive plans for the future” to continue supporting its network within the western half of the US. Southwest said it carries more local travellers to and from Denver than any other carrier. The nearly US$100m investment will make Denver International—which is one of the carrier’s top 5 airports for daily departures—the seventh maintenance hangar location for Southwest. The 130,000 sq. ft. hangar will give the location’s 75-member technical operations team indoor space to work on up to 3 of the carrier’s Boeing 737 aircraft at a time. <br/>
AirAsia X Group's Q1 operating profit fell 18% to MYR49.6m (US$11.9m) as it carried less passengers and cut 4 routes. Revenue declined 8.1% to MYR1.17b during the quarter ended 31 March, while expenses fell 7.6% to MYR1.12b despite higher depreciation and maintenance charges. CASK including fuel was down 3% to MYR0.13, while excluding fuel it was flat at MYR0.82. Attributable net profit rose 4.2% to MYR44.3m, as an MYR89m gain in foreign exchange offset higher financing costs. AirAsia X's operating profit fell 18% to MYR49.6m during the January-March 2019 quarter The number of passengers carried during the January-March quarter fell 5% to 1.51m, in line with a 5% decline in ASKs as it terminated services to Tehran, Kathmandu, Male and Auckland. <br/>