A budget airline little known outside China has emerged as the nation’s biggest carrier by international capacity after the novel coronavirus outbreak led established giants like Air China to slash operations. Shanghai-listed Spring Airlines' international seat capacity stood at 86,040 as of Feb. 10, down 5.9% from Jan. 20, according to OAG Aviation Worldwide. In that period, as concern grew about the spread of the virus, Air China slashed international capacity by 65% to 70,603. Cuts by China Southern and China Eastern were even more drastic, by more than 75% for both to 50,073 and 64,837, respectively, OAG said. “China’s three largest airlines have now cut international capacity by over half a million seats a week compared to four weeks ago,” said John Grant, a senior analyst at OAG. “We know from previous events of this nature that capacity and demand will return quickly but the numbers are certainly some of the most dramatic we have ever seen in any market,” he said.<br/>
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Regional carrier Air Italy said Tuesday it will cease operations and go into liquidation after shareholders opted against putting more money into the company to keep it afloat. The move follows two years of losses during which the airline sought to transform itself from being a summer holiday carrier called Meridiana into a national carrier with flights across Europe. When Air Italia was launched two years ago, Alisarda, the Aga Khan’s Sardinia-based holding company, had a 51%-stake and Qatar Airways took 49%. Qatar Airways said in a statement that it would have been willing to continue its support of the airline "but this would have only been possible with the commitment of all shareholders."<br/>
Southwest continues to fly airplanes with safety concerns while federal officials do a poor job overseeing the airline, a government watchdog said Tuesday. The airline has flown more than 150,000 flights on 88 jets it bought on the used-plane market and which had unconfirmed maintenance histories, the Transportation Department’s inspector general said in a report. That put more than 17m passengers at risk, according to the report. In 2017, FAA inspectors began finding “potentially serious gaps” in Southwest’s process for verifying the condition of the planes, including major repairs that weren’t documented and maintenance records that didn’t meet FAA standards. Meeting US standards normally takes up to four weeks per plane, but people hired by Southwest approved 71 of the planes on the same day, the inspector general said. Southwest said 80 of the planes have been inspected and returned to flying, and the last eight are undergoing maintenance. The FAA gave the airline until this summer to bring the planes in compliance with federal rules because it accepted Southwest’s argument that the issues were low safety risks, the inspector general said. The watchdog office added that FAA has not given its inspectors enough guidance on reviewing risk assessments and evaluating an airline’s safety culture.<br/>
The government of Sri Lanka is considering ways of recovering damages, including claiming compensation from Airbus, after the European planemaker admitted to bribing executives to win aircraft orders. “The reputational damage was huge, enormous,” Vipula Gunatilleka, CEO of state-run SriLankan Airlines, said at the Singapore Airshow on Wednesday. “That’s why our government is looking at certain remedial action.” Airbus two weeks ago admitted to illegally trying to sway plane sales and agreed to a record $4b bribery settlement. That included bribing the wife of a SriLankan Airlines official, who received $2m through a Brunei shell company, according to the UK‘s Serious Fraud Office. Following the settlement, Sri Lankan prosecutors said Kapila Chandrasena, the ex-CEO of SriLankan, and his wife, Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayaka, were suspects in a money-laundering case linked to Airbus aircraft sales. An attempt by the Sri Lankan government to sell a 49% stake in the carrier seems to be off the table, Gunatilleka said. The airline is restructuring, and that should be enough to revive its fortunes, he said.<br/>
Aerolineas Argentinas will add new flights to New York and Madrid as the government-controlled carrier seeks to ramp up sales outside its home country and boost income in an effort to beat back persistent operating losses. The chairman of Argentina's namesake airline said he expects income to hit $1.7b in 2020, in line with the previous year, thanks to the sale of nearly 13m tickets. "If we can carry out our growth plan, the company's deficit will gradually be reduced," said Pablo Ceriani, who took over as chairman of the company's board in December under incoming Argentine president Alberto Fernandez. Aerolineas has an operating deficit of $570m. The airline, which currently flies four times a week to New York, will add an additional flight there in May, and another in July. It will also boost flights to Madrid from seven to 10 in July. Increasing tourism within Argentina is also part of the company's growth strategy, along with strengthening its operations throughout the region, Ceriani said.<br/>
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, JetBlue is having a sale. Would-be travelers will need to act quickly to take advantage of the "20 Years Just Flew By" sale -- some routes are as low as $20 one way -- and be extremely flexible. The two-day sale, which ends at 11:59 pm ET on February 12, requires travellers to depart on a Tuesday or Wednesday. The sale also includes blackout dates -- March 18 to March 31 and April 14 to April 21 -- and travel must be completed by June 17. Low-maintenance travellers who don't care about choosing a seat in advance and who don't mind boarding the plane last could score a deal to one of the many selected markets. <br/>