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Virgin Australia Holdings said Wednesday it plans to cut domestic capacity by at least 2% and remove five aircraft from its fleet as it grapples with stagnant demand. It will also axe its Melbourne-Hong Kong route, which Virgin said had underperformed amid widespread pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and the carrier will fly from Brisbane to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport instead. The reduction in domestic capacity, which will take place before end-June and comes on the heels of restructuring moves unveiled this year, is aimed at lifting airfares as domestic revenue and demand have flatlined, CE Paul Scurrah said. “We are seeing a flat market compared to a very robust first half last year,” he said. “We are seeing the same things our competitor is seeing.” Virgin said in August it would cut 750 jobs, merge business divisions and conduct a sweeping review of its operations after swinging to an annual underlying loss due to soft market conditions and higher fuel costs. Scurrah said on Wednesday the airline was working to get the balance right between Virgin Australia and its budget brand, Tigerair Australia, so that the pair were no longer operating on the same routes at the same time.<br/>

Norwegian Air Shuttle is tapping investors for extra cash for the second time this year as the low-cost airline seeks to secure its financial future ahead of the tricky winter season.  Europe’s third-largest low-cost airline is issuing up to 27.25m new shares — about a fifth of its existing share capital — in a private placement as well as a convertible bond of up to $175m.  Norwegian is likely to sell the shares at a discount to its current share price — at Tuesday’s closing level the new shares would be worth about NKr1.25b ($135m). In its previous NKr3b private placement last spring it sold them at less than half of its previous price. It added that it intended to offer an unspecified number of shares to existing shareholders on the same terms as the private placement afterwards. The airline has taken considerable action this year after ending its strategy of rapid expansion, including into transatlantic flights, and instead focusing on profitability. It has sold aircraft and its stake in the Norwegian bank it founded, restructured bonds, and replaced its CE and chairman.  Geir Karlsen, the acting CE, said that despite “good results to date” its liquidity had been negatively affected by problems with its Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 737 Max aircraft as well as issues with credit card companies.  “The actions we are now taking are necessary to create financial headroom to make sure that we have sufficient liquidity as we enter the next chapter of Norwegian,” he said. Norwegian added that it would be fully funded “through 2020” after the private placement and convertible bond. <br/>

Aer Lingus is set to announce the launch of new routes from Shannon Airport to Paris and Barcelona in a move that is expected to help return the Co Clare airport to growth next year. Aer Lingus plans to fly four times a week to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, and three times a week to Barcelona. The new routes will be unveiled by Aer Lingus executives at a ceremony in Shannon on Wednesday morning, and the new services will begin in Q1 next year. The route to Charles de Gaulle will offer passengers the opportunity to use Paris as a hub for onward flights to a wide range of long-haul destinations in Asia, South America and elsewhere. The service to Barcelona is likely to put Aer Lingus in competition with Ryanair, which offers a twice-weekly service to Barcelona Reus during summer. Aer Lingus already flies a number of routes from Shannon, including to London Heathrow, Edinburgh, Malaga, New York and Boston.<br/>

At least three Ryanair Boeing 737s have been grounded due to cracks between the wing and fuselage but this was not disclosed to the public, the Guardian can reveal. The budget Irish airline is the latest to be affected by faults in the “pickle fork” structure, which has sparked an urgent grounding of 50 planes globally since 3 October. While other airlines, such as Australia’s Qantas and America’s Southwest, have disclosed the number of their planes affected by the cracks, Ryanair – which operates the largest fleet of 737s in Europe – has previously refused to confirm how many of its planes have been affected. Last Thursday, the airline said it “does not expect” the global pickle fork issue would “have any impact upon our operations or fleet availability”. Three of their planes have been affected by the issue. It is understood that experts do not regard the presence of the cracks as a safety issue as long as appropriate checks are carried out. All three are more than 15 years old. A copy of internal Ryanair engineering logs, seen by the Guardian, lists all three as having “pickle fork cracks”. On Monday, Ryanair did not respond to detailed questions about the aircraft. A spokesman said it was continuing to review aircraft in line with the US Federal Aviation Authority, and “did not expect any impact on its operations or fleet availability”.<br/>

Icelandic investors have unveiled a new low-cost airline, branded Play, which intends to use a fleet of Airbus A321s. Play is aiming to operate services initially to Europe, it says. It plans to open routes to a number of North American destinations in spring 2020 and bring its fledgling fleet up to six aircraft for the summer season. The carrier will commence ticket sales in November, eight months after the collapse of a previous budget airline, Wow Air. Play says it has recruited personnel from Wow Air as well as Icelandic wet-lease specialist Air Atlanta. Its CE, Arnar Mar Magnusson, is a former chief pilot at Wow Air and headed the carrier's operations. Play wants to expand its fleet further, to 10 aircraft, within a three-year period.<br/>

A Chinese pilot has been grounded after a photo of a woman sitting in an airplane cockpit emerged on social media, sparking outrage over a breach of safety rules. The photo, posted by the woman on the Twitter-like Weibo social network, showed her taking the pilot's seat and making a V-sign while wearing civilian clothes. "[I am] super thankful to the pilot! I am really so excited," the caption read. The photo was spotted by a Chinese aviation blogger on Sunday. The blogger identified that the image was taken on an Air Guilin plane mid-flight, and criticized the airline for disregarding flight safety. The woman has since deleted the original photo on her Weibo account.<br/>The photo went viral by the time it had been taken down. The aviation blogger's post about the image currently has 22,000 likes. Air Guilin confirmed that the incident took place during a flight from the southern city of Guilin to Yangzhou, eastern China on January 4. On Monday the airline said it had suspended the unnamed pilot from flying duties "for life" for violating civil aviation rules, while other members of the flight crew had been banned indefinitely, pending further investigation.<br/>