Russian airline Ural Airlines plans to receive the first of 14 previously ordered Boeing-737 MAX aircraft for leasing in December, Interfax news agency reported, citing its CE Sergei Skuratov. Two Boeing MAX aircraft crashed in Ethiopia in March and Indonesia last October, triggering the global grounding of the aircraft. Regulators must approve the fix and new pilot training before the jets can fly again. “These are good aircrafts. Mistakes have been made, but they are going to be fixed,” Skuratov was quoted as saying by Interfax. Ural Airlines signed a deal for the leasing of 14 Boeing-737 MAX 8 in the spring of 2018. The delivery was expected between October 2019 and May 2022, Interfax said. When asked whether the company considered cancelling the deal, Skuratov told the agency that “Boeing has certain advantages: seven hours 45 minutes (of flight) without refueling fully loaded.” Ural Airlines plans to receive its first Airbus A320neo in August with an additional four jets expected to arrive by the end of 2019, he added.<br/>
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Brazilian airline Gol expects unit passenger revenue to increase by 24% in Q2 compared to the same period last year, the company said in a corporate filing on Monday. For the April to June quarter, its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margin is expected to be between 22% and 24%, the company said, up from 16.4% in the same period a year ago. The EBIT margin, before interest and tax, is expected to be around 9% to 10%. The airline also said that unit costs excluding fuel are expected to have risen by about 15% in Q2 from a year ago, mainly due to a 9% fall in the Brazilian real, higher payroll taxes, higher fees, and increased depreciation costs due to an expanded fleet. <br/>
A man whose behavior on a Hawaiian Airlines flight to South Korea forced it to return to Honolulu has been ordered to pay the air carrier more than $172,000. Kyong Chol Kim was sentenced Wednesday to six months in jail for interfering with flight attendants and crew members on the flight in February. Prosecutors say the 48-year-old South Korean man drank a bottle of whiskey before the flight and later bothered a child seated next him. Prosecutors say he lunged at a flight attendant after the employee confronted him about his behavior. US service members on board helped restrain Kim as the flight turned around. Kim was ordered to pay Hawaiian Airlines the cost of returning the flight and accommodating passengers waiting for the plane in South Korea.<br/>
Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has given Regional Express (Rex) the all-clear, after an audit found no issues with its safety record The statement, published on 6 July, details a two-day safety audit at Rex’s Wagga maintenance facility, focusing on error reporting rates and the management of these error reports. The audit team spoke with management and staff members, including maintenance engineering staff. The audit is part of a wider safety assurance review. CASA found “no current issues with the safety of Rex aircraft”. “CASA will carefully assess the information obtained in the course of the audit against the requirements of the applicable civil aviation legislation,” the authority adds. The authority will also take action against Rex, if there was "any evidence of serious safety issues...or with any unaddressed airworthiness concerns in relation to a particular aircraft". In a stock exchange disclosure, Rex says it welcomed CASA's findings, which it said "unequivocally rejects the scurrilous allegations". The audit, which took place on 4 and 5 July, comes after the carrier hit out at what it called “malicious” allegations of safety lapses. A report submitted to CASA alleged that Rex pressured its maintenance crew not to report defects, and that the airline had generally been lax in safety.<br/>
Jeju Air, Jin Air, T'way Air and other low-cost carriers are reeling from a drop in the number of Koreans visiting Japan amid the growing anti-Japan sentiment here, according to industry analysts Monday. The trend will likely accelerate in line with worsening Korea-Japan ties since Tokyo imposed restrictions on exports to Korea of high-tech materials essential for manufacturing chips and display panels, wreaking havoc on budget carriers during the peak summer vacation season. They said LCCs increased their reliance on routes to Japan after Korea's 2017 diplomatic row with China, but the number of Japan-bound travelers declined in the first half of this year, and the fresh conflict between Korea and Japan will deal an additional blow to their profitability. Along with Koreans' growing anti-Japan sentiment, Japanese media outlets reported that Tokyo is additionally considering strengthening visa rules on Koreans.<br/>