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Southwest continues to negotiate with Boeing over damage caused by the grounding of the 737 Max. Southwest Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly said Monday in a note to employees that the airline is considering ways to share the compensation with workers. Kelly didn't give details about the negotiations with Boeing. Southwest has the world's biggest fleet of Boeing 737s, including 34 Max jets and more on order. It has taken the planes out of its schedule through Jan. 5 — longer than American and United. Boeing said it does not comment on arrangements with particular customers, but it said in a statement that "we will continue to work closely with them to reach a fair and reasonable outcome."<br/>

British carrier easyJet has expressed an interest in collapsed airline Aigle Azur’s operations at Paris Orly airport, a spokesman said Monday. The airline filed for bankruptcy and suspended flights last week, leaving 19,000 of passengers stranded. A French minister named Air France-KLM as a likely bidder for the airline on Monday, but the carrier had no immediate comment on whether it had submitted an offer for all or part of Aigle Azur as a midday court deadline passed.<br/>

Since taking the reins at Spirit Airlines this year, Ted Christie has overseen a 38% share decline and a deteriorating financial outlook. But just wait for next year as the discounter steps up efforts to squeeze more revenue out of travellers. “Nobody’s satisfied with the performance to date and I am certainly among that group,” Spirit’s CEO said Monday. “We haven’t deployed all the products that we wanted to deploy” in 2019, such as new ways to sell on-board perks such as seat assignments and baggage charges. The effort to increase non-ticket revenue is poised to gain momentum in 2020 as the carrier begins pushing sales of ancillary items such as access to larger seats, along with vacation products like hotel rooms and show tickets. That sales category is already growing faster than fare revenue, and the initiatives for next year provide “cause for optimism,” the CEO said. This year, Spirit has tumbled the most among US airlines with a market value of at least $1b. Spirit said fares over the summer proved weaker than expected, echoing similar comments last week from JetBlue Airways. Both airlines, which cater primarily to leisure travellers, also cited the financial fallout from Hurricane Dorian. Spirit canceled 768 flights due to the hurricane, which contributed to a $25m sales hit. For Q3, Spirit said total revenue for each seat flown a mile will drop as much as 3.5%, compared with the previous forecast of a decline of no more than 2%. While investors “are obviously frustrated in the performance of the stock, I share their frustration,” Christie said. “They like the model, they like the opportunities that are before us and they want to see us deliver.”<br/>

Taiwanese startup carrier Starlux Airlines will begin commercial operations Jan. 23, 2020, with three Airbus A321neos. The launch date is expected to capture the Chinese New Year holidays, which runs from Jan. 25, 2020, for about 15 days. Starlux chairman Chang Kuo-wei told Taiwanese media that possible launch destinations could be Vietnam’s Da Nang, Macau, or Malaysia’s Penang. Starlux will take delivery of its first A321neo in November, followed by a second and third in December and January 2020, respectively. Seven more of the type are expected in 2020. The carrier also has 12 A350-1000s and five A350-900s on order, with deliveries planned from 2021 to 2022. The airline hopes to serve 20 Asian and North American destinations by 2024; transpacific flights are expected to begin the same year.<br/>

Belgian start-up carrier Air Antwerp has formally started operations on the route to London City, on which it plans to operate 16 times weekly. Air Antwerp is using Fokker 50 turboprops on the sector. The start-up airline is majority-owned by Ireland's CityJet with Dutch flag-carrier KLM holding a 25% balance. KLM has entered a commercial partnership with the new carrier to codeshare on the Antwerp-London City route. Air Antwerp CE Johan Maertens says the airline's personnel have had "all hands on deck" to prepare for the inauguration, adding that the route has generated "wide interest". While the management company at Antwerp airport says the UK's planned withdrawal from the European Union will bring uncertainty, it says trade with the UK "will not diminish". "Quite the contrary," said Antwerp airport chief Marcel Buelens. "We expect that even more people will have to travel to the British capital in order to sort out certain matters and to make maximum use of the new opportunities that will present themselves." Air Antwerp will operate up to three-times daily on the route.<br/>