A Ukrainian airliner fell to earth in a fireball shortly after take-off from Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board in a crash that sparked an international scramble to establish the cause. The Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800, en route to Kiev and carrying mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, crashed hours after Iran fired missiles at bases housing US forces in Iraq, leading some to speculate that the plane may have been hit. But five security sources who asked not to be named said the initial assessment of Western intelligence agencies was that the plane had suffered a technical malfunction and had not been brought down by a missile. There was evidence one of the jet’s engines had overheated, the Canadian source said. “We are in contact with our airline customers and stand by them in this difficult time. We are ready to assist in any way needed,” the manufacturer said in a statement earlier on Wednesday. In Paris on Wednesday, the maker of the plane’s engines, French-U.S. firm CFM - co-owned by General Electric and France’s Safran - said speculation regarding the cause was premature. Smoldering parts and debris, including shoes and clothes, were strewn across a field southwest of the Iranian capital, where rescue workers in face masks laid out scores of body bags. Among the victims were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, and 11 Ukrainians, Ukrainian authorities said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that 138 of the passengers were connecting to a flight to Canada. The Tehran-Toronto via Kiev route was a popular one for Canadians of Iranian descent visiting Iran, in the absence of direct flights, and carried many students and academics heading home from the holidays.<br/>
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Brazil’s largest airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes expects to post higher revenue per passenger and lower costs for Q4 2019, a securities filing showed on Wednesday. Gol expects its passenger unit revenue to grow by 11% from a year earlier and its non-fuel unit costs and fuel unit costs to decrease by 10% and 21%, respectively, it said. Still, it said its earnings per share excluding currency effects are expected to fall to 0.6 reais from 0.73 reais a year earlier.<br/>
China’s Juneyao Airlines plans to set up branches in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Malaysia and Greece, the company said in a filing on Wednesday, as it ventures to Europe and Southeast Asia in a global expansion drive. Juneyao, a private-owned carrier based in Shanghai, has been gradually bolstering its overseas presence after the first delivery of widebody Boeing 787 aircraft in 2018. It started its first long-haul service to Helsinki last June. With six 787s in its fleet and four more on order, the carrier has said it will add new services to Manchester, Dublin and Iceland from March, all of which will fly through Helsinki. Its overseas expansion comes amid mounting losses for Chinese airlines on long-haul routes, which hit a combined $3.2b in 2018, as the economy slows and trade tensions weigh. Due to foreign ownership rules, Juneyao will need to find local partners in each of the countries.<br/>
Jin Air has been struggling with continued government sanctions as it is unable to acquire new flight routes and expand its fleet, according to industry officials Wednesday. The deteriorating ties between Korea and Japan has also made things go from bad to worse for the Korean Air-affiliated budget carrier as it is losing money on its Japan routes due to the falling number of Koreans traveling to the neighboring country, they said. In August 2018, the ministry banned Jin Air from adding new flight routes, acquiring new planes and operating unscheduled flights, following revelations of Hanjin Group heiress Cho Hyun-min's board membership. The ban was put in place after the ministry found Jin Air had broken the transport law by allowing Cho ― a U.S. citizen ― to serve on the company's board of directors between 2010 and 2016. The sanctions prevented the nation's second-biggest budget carrier from acquiring new licenses to open flight routes in February, including one between Incheon and Ulaanbaatar as well as Busan and Singapore. In May last year, it was also prevented from bidding for a new route linking Incheon and China. But the transport ministry has no plans of repealing the 17-month long sanctions against Jin Air anytime soon.<br/>