Lion Air is launching a pre-marketing drive next week for a potential public float, 3 sources familiar with its plans said, as the airline seeks to win over investors more than a year after the fatal crash of one of its Boeing 737 MAX jets. The carrier, one of Asia's largest budget carriers with 112 planes, will begin investor presentations next week in Jakarta, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong and cities in Europe and the US, said the sources. No new target for the capital-raising has yet been set, but people familiar with the company's plans have previously suggested a range of between US$750m and $1b. A termsheet said that the proceeds of any deal would go towards longer-term leases more akin to owning planes, as well as towards its general operations. <br/>
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Flybe’s owners are seeking a GBP100m short-term loan from the UK govt as part of the agreed rescue deal of the troubled regional airline. A decision on whether the govt will provide the loan is expected within the next 2 weeks, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. As part of the deal, Flybe’s owner, Connect Airways — a consortium of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Air and Cyrus Capital — has agreed to make a further capital injection into the airline, on top of the GBP30m it has already promised to invest in the coming weeks. The investment is expected to be another GBP20m, according to the people. A loan would be a major govt intervention, which is unusual for a Tory administration. The govt has previously stressed that any loan to Flybe would have to comply with EU state aid rules. <br/>
Strong growth at its new Austrian unit Lauda helped Ryanair reclaim its position as the biggest European airline group by passenger numbers in 2019, though overall growth among leading operators in the region lagged that of previous years. Ryanair increased passenger numbers by more than 9% to reach 152.4m for the calendar year. That includes more than 6m passengers at Lauda, the subsidiary unit it established after fully acquiring Laudamotion in early 2019. The latter unit was itself established out of the assets of collapsed leisure carrier Niki. This growth helped Ryanair move back ahead of Europe’s second biggest airline group, Lufthansa, in terms of passenger numbers. <br/>
Southwest Airlines is so confident that flyers will trust the Boeing 737 Max when it returns to service that it's not considering any discounts on flights using the plane. Southwest president Tom Nealon said Thursday that "at this point, there's no notion of discounting Max flights". He said that the "vast majority" of flyers don't plan to change how they fly, and that some travellers said they will actually fly on that plane more frequently than on other models. "The thought being, it's actually going to be the safest plane out there with all the scrutiny,'' he said. Some polls have suggested that, contrary to Nealon's comments, members of the public are reluctant to fly on the plane. According to a June 2019 poll by UBS, 41% of Americans said they wouldn't consider flying on a Max plane until it had been back in service for 6 months. <br/>
NokScoot has obtained a Bt200m (US$6.56m) loan from a major shareholder of Nok Air in the form of a promissory note. This was issued by Hatairatn Jurangkool, who owns 24.4% of Nok and is the mother of Nok’s CE, Wutthiphoom Jurangkool. Nok says the 1-year note was issued Dec 12,2019 and will be used by NokScoot for working capital and general operation purposes. The shareholder loan was approved at Nok’s board meeting held Jan 23. The loan carries an interest of 6.3%, which is below the average minimum loan rate of 6.93% offered by locally registered commercial banks. No collateral was required from NokScoot. Nok Air and Scoot each own a 49% stake in NokScoot, while the remaining 2% is held by Pueannammitr Company. <br/>