Philippine aviation officials on Monday grounded all aircraft belonging to a company that owns a plane that caught fire while taking off from Manila's airport, killing all eight people on board. All of Lionair’s aircraft will remain grounded during the investigation of the burning of its Westwind 24 plane late Sunday, they said. The plane had been used earlier to transport medical supplies for the coronavirus outbreak. Lionair, a Philippine-based charter company, is not related to Lion Air, an Indonesian low-cost airline. The twin-engine aircraft was on a medical evacuation mission when it caught fire. Two passengers from the US and Canada and six Filipino flight crew and medical personnel died when the Tokyo-bound plane burst into flames on the main runway, airport general manager Ed Monreal said. The aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder has been recovered by investigators, officials said.<br/>
unaligned
Spirit Airlines said Monday it will cancel all flights to and from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey after US officials warned against travel to the area because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spirit, which appeared to be the first major US carrier to cancel all flights to the so-called tri-state region, said it was responding to this weekend’s CDC advisory warning against all non-essential travel to and from the area. Spirit said it will suspend service to the airports it serves in the region - New York LaGuardia, Newark, Hartford, Niagara Falls and Plattsburgh - through at least May 4. Flights are to be fully suspended by mid-week, the airline said. The FAA this month waived rules mandating minimum flights from high-traffic airports like LaGuardia because of the coronavirus pandemic. Spirit said on Monday it had obtained a senior secured revolving credit facility worth $110m with an option to increase to $350m with the consent of any increasing lenders. Spirit pledged take-off and landing rights at LaGuardia, aircraft and other assets.<br/>
EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has lashed out at critics who have questioned his family’s acceptance of a GBP60m dividend this month from the low-cost carrier he created more than 20 years ago, which he has said risks insolvency unless it cancels a multibillion-dollar aircraft order from Airbus. This weekend Sir Stelios, whose family controls 34% of easyJet, threatened to launch a campaign to oust the group’s non-executive directors one by one if the board did not cancel the orders from the European aerospace manufacturer, which he estimated to be worth GBP4.5b. “The dividend was legally at the point of no return . . . at the very latest on February 27 2020,” he said. The easyJet founder, who stepped down from the board a decade ago, said he was perplexed by media reports that suggested he should have waived the payout. “To be used how? To pay that money straight over to Airbus? . . . Is it meant as a selfless charitable donation? I do give large sums of money to many charities each year but Airbus is not one of them,” he said. The group said on Monday it was seeking to “defer and reduce” payments for the 107 aircraft it has on order from Airbus, as part of a wider cost cutting exercise. The airline also on Monday announced it had grounded its entire fleet.<br/>
Virgin Australia has confirmed it asked the Federal Government for a A$1.4b bailout after the airline paused trading on the ASX Tuesday morning. The carrier responded to reports it had lobbied the government for financial support amid a massive downturn triggered by the coronavirus. "Virgin Australia acknowledges reporting in The Australian today and confirms it continues to explore a range of options to manage through the COVID 19 crisis, including requesting financial support from the Australian Government in the order of $1.4 billion as part of a broader industry support package to prepare for a prolonged crisis," the carrier said. Virgin Australia said it was taking a "range of measures" to respond to the financial hit on its business. "However, support will be necessary for the industry if this crisis continues indefinitely to protect jobs and ensure Australia retains a strong, competitive aviation and tourism sector once this crisis is over."<br/>
United Arab Emirates carrier flydubai will reduce pay for its employees for three months from April due to the impact of the global coronavirus crisis on its business, a spokeswoman said Monday. “This decision has not been taken lightly. It has been made to offer some stability at a time of uncertainty and to minimize the impact on all its employees when the normal pattern of life has been disrupted,” the spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman did not say by how much pay would be reduced but said senior employees would contribute a greater share and that measures had been taken to reduce the impact on junior staff. Other employee benefits would not be affected, she said. A flydubai employee said pilots and engineers would be paid half their basic salaries and cabin crew would be paid 25% less. Fellow Dubai state airline Emirates, which has also suspended passenger flights, has already said staff wages would be temporarily reduced.<br/>
Iceland will pay carrier Icelandair up to 100m krona ($717m) to keep some flights to and from Iceland open for three weeks, Icelandic daily Morgunbladid reported on Monday. Icelandair, whose largest market is for flights between Europe and North America via Iceland, has been heavily affected by US travel restrictions, implemented earlier this month. Icelandair has agreed to continue operating flights to Boston and either London and Stockholm two days a week. The government would cover any losses incurred for those flights, Morgunbladid reported. The agreement between the airline and the government has already taken effect, according to Morgunbladid.<br/>