unaligned

Southwest Airlines Thursday became the first US carrier to give up on seeing the Boeing 737 MAX return to the skies this year, as the worldwide grounding of the top-selling aircraft dented quarterly profits for 2 major airlines. Southwest said it has begun talks with Boeing about compensation for the impact from widespread flight cancellations and delayed deliveries of new planes that forced it to slow down its ramp-up of service to Hawaii. Southwest now plans to resume flights on the MAX Jan 5, more than 2 months later than previously expected. The airline said it could take up to 2 months to resume flights once the plane is cleared by regulators to perform maintenance and to address FAA directives, including pilot training. <br/>

Southwest Airlines will end service at Newark Liberty International Nov 3 in response to constraints created by the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max, the airline said Thursday. Southwest will consolidate its New York operations at LaGuardia. Southwest says the Max grounding will cause its 2019 capacity to decline 1-2% year-on-year. The airline had hoped to grow capacity nearly 5% this year. "As such, we are taking necessary steps to mitigate damages and optimise our aircraft and resources," CE Gary Kelly said. "The financial results at Newark have been below expectations," Kelly adds. The airline will give Newark employees the option to transfer to other locations. The Max grounding reduced Southwest's Q2 operating income by US$175m. Southwest earned a net Q2 profit of $741m, up about 1% year-on-year. <br/>

Air travel is becoming a test of physical endurance. Seats have shrunk, legroom has vanished -- and the airlines aren’t done yet. Cebu Air last month said it was moving kitchens and bathrooms on some new aircraft to cram in a record 460 seats, 20 more than the plane’s current maximum. It’s part of a broader push, particularly in Asia, to stuff more people into jets flying the most popular routes, according to aviation researcher Landrum & Brown. “It’s only going to get worse over the next decade,” said a consultant at the firm. Cebu chief executive adviser Mike Szucs said “customer comfort and experience will be a primary consideration” but airfares are “always an aspect consumers are conscious about.” <br/>

Speculation about management changes at Ryanair has heated up since it emerged that COO Peter Bellew was defecting to rival EasyJet last week. The airline is re-organising itself along the lines IAG, with a group holding company controlling several different carriers, each with their own CE, competing for cash and aircraft from the parent. Bellew was tipped as one of the frontrunners for the biggest individual unit, Ryanair DAC, which would include the Irish operation and much of its European business, essentially the Ryanair with which most people are familiar. CCO David O’Brien was another seen as a strong internal candidate for this role. Bellew’s announcement had most observers agreeing that O’Brien would get the DAC job. As a long-standing executive, he would be one of the more obvious choices. <br/>

A fight between two billionaire co-founders is threatening to derail IndiGo. Rakesh Gangwal is accusing partner Rahul Bhatia of corporate-governance transgressions at IndiGo and wants his powers curbed. Bhatia denies the allegations, and there's no sign yet that the disagreement is affecting financial performance of the airline, operated by InterGlobe Aviation. Yet analysts see risks in a prolonged dispute - even after the carrier posted record profit last week. While local media reports have suggested the owners may be negotiating a truce, neither Bhatia, whose holding company owns 38% of the airline, nor Gangwal, who with affiliates holds 37%, was available for comment. A prolonged dispute could dent IndiGo's lead in India, where it controls close to 50% of the local market. <br/>

Vistara goes green as the carrier is mulling to remove the usage of 200m plastic water bottles from its flights. With an aim to reduce the usage of plastic and single-use plastic, Vistara has implemented an initiative on Delhi-Mumbai flights July 16. The initiative will be extended to all flights across the airline’s network. Under this initiative, Vistara will serve mineral water in environment-friendly paper cups instead of providing Economy Class customers with plastic bottles. Vistara has fixed a target of reducing single-use plastic usage up to 50%. Vistara has said that eliminating the use of bottled water is a major challenge. It cited the non-availability of non-plastic alternative for individual units of water as the reason. <br/>

Allegiant Air passengers who want more legroom might have a new option if a test underway in Los Angeles is successful. The discounter, known for bargain fares and extra charges for pretty much everything else, introduced "Allegiant Extra'' seats on flights out of LA this summer. The airline converted 3 planes for the test, adding an additional 6 inches of legroom in each of the first 5 rows of the plane, an Allegiant spokeswoman said. In addition to extra legroom, passengers who pay to reserve the cushier seats receive priority board, a free drink and dedicated overhead bin space. VP Drew Wells said Wednesday that the results in Los Angeles have been mixed. He said the airline has had the most success with sales of the Allegiant Extra seats on longer flights. The test in Los Angeles will continue through the summer. <br/>

Wizz Air made a strong start to its financial year, with a combination of firmer fares and the growing number of new-generation aircraft in its fleet, allowing the LCC to turn around its financial figures. The carrier achieved a Q1 net profit for the 2020 financial year—which runs from March 31-June 30—of E72.4m (US$82.3m), reversing a net loss of E29.3m for the same period last year. The year-ago figures were restated to take account of IFRS 16 accountancy standards. The company achieved the result on a 25.4% jump in revenue, which rose to E691.2m compared to E551m a year ago. Passenger numbers for the period rose 20.1% to 10.4m, up from 8.6m. Load factor rose to 93.7%, up from 92.1% last time. "We remain optimistic for the current financial year,” Wizz Air CE József Váradi said. <br/>

AirBaltic has placed E200m (US$223m) in bonds, which will be listed on the Euronext Dublin stock exchange, generating funds for the airline’s general liquidity and fleet expansion. The 6.75% 5-year bond offering was over-subscribed, attracting more than 100 investors from 25 countries. AirBaltic said there was “solid demand” from the Baltics and Nordics. “Not only have we issued the largest bond of any company in the history of Latvia, airBaltic also became the first airline in Central and Eastern Europe to access the international debt capital markets with a Eurobond offering. Investors have clearly shown that they see AirBaltic’s strategy as mature and strong,” CE Martin Gauss said. <br/>