Tarom, will replace its regional fleet of ATRs with updated variants of the aircraft, the airline said Wednesday. The carrier will acquire 9 ATR 72-600s from lessor Nordic Aviation Capital, with deliveries running from Oct 2019 into 2020. Tarom said it had been successful in its domestic operations by using ATRs to compete with LCCs. Introducing the latest versions would continue to provide it with that edge, the airline said, with fuel burn and CO2 emissions both 40% lower than regional jets. The carrier added that it would be trading in its existing models—7 ATR 42-500s and 2 ATR 72-500s—against the new examples. The increase in capacity by consolidating on the larger ATR 72 would give it an additional 330,000 seats a year at the same operating cost as the existing number of seats. <br/>
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Delta and JetBlue are offering waivers for tickets to the Dominican Republic following the deaths of several US tourists in the Caribbean country. Delta is offering options for Dominican-bound travellers "due to recent events," airline officials said Wednesday. JetBlue is also offering similar options. Delta travellers ticketed to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic may cancel their flights altogether and get a credit to apply toward future travel, or they can change their flight and the usual fee will be waived, airline officials announced. Delta did not specify what the 'recent events' are, but the waiver announcement follows a series of tourists deaths in the Dominican Republic that have attracted a flurry of media attention. <br/>