The founder of easyJet has warned that the airline will run out of cash by August if an order for more than 100 new Airbus jets is not cancelled. Stelios Haji-Ioannou, whose family controls one-third of the carrier’s shares, is seeking to remove the CFO, Andrew Findlay. An extraordinary open letter from the businessman begins: “My main objective is to terminate the GBP4.5b contract between easyJet and Airbus for 107 additional useless aircraft. If this GBP4.5b liability to Airbus is preserved – and not cancelled – by the easyJet board then, I regret to report, easyJet will run out of money around August 2020, perhaps even earlier.” In response to the coronavirus pandemic and the collapse in demand among passengers, the airline has grounded its entire fleet throughout April and May. While many in the aviation industry hope that flights in significant numbers will be resumed by June, Sir Stelios says restarting mass air-travel could be much longer.<br/>
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Hainan Airlines is calling a meeting with bondholders this week to seek a delay in repayment, citing tight liquidity as the coronavirus pandemic slammed travel and carriers worldwide. The airline, part of the debt-stricken HNA Group, is holding a conference call Friday with holders of its 750m yuan (US$106.4m) 4.35 per cent bond, according to a Shanghai Clearing House filing on Tuesday. The 270-day bond matures on April 17. Revenue has dropped significantly due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the company said in the filing. Debt repayment pressure has been relatively high in the past two years and the company is likely unable to repay the short-term notes and hopes to extend the repayment, it added. The carrier’s financial crunch adds to a long list of troubles faced by its parent company as ambitious debt-funded expansion plans in the past five years turned sour. Hainan Airlines said passenger volume slumped 64.8% year over year in February to about 5.09m, while freight volume shrank 39.2% to 51,200 tonnes. Both capacities fell by about 60 to 62%.<br/>
El Al is facing a possible shutdown after the Finance Ministry announced Monday that it opposes approving an economic aid package that they have been negotiating with El Al for approximately two months. Office representatives told the struggling airline that the professional staff's current position is not to approve the requested aid package. However, the Finance Office's professional team said that it is under the authority of the political echelon to reverse or change the decision, and the company subsequently applied for assistance from the Israeli government. El Al chairman Eli Defes warned earlier on Monday that El Al is "likely to close" if the government does not provide financial assistance within the coming days. Defes said the company had presented requests to the Finance Ministry worth a total of $350m, in addition to an organizational efficiency plan.<br/>
Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes has the flexibility to reduce its fleet from 130 Boeing 737 planes to 100 by letting leases expire, executives said on Tuesday while discussing steps to cope with impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The struggles of Gol, Brazil’s largest domestic carrier, which has grounded all but 10 planes and is flying just 50 flights a day, are typical of a wider industry crisis as travel bans linked to the pandemic have shriveled up global demand. But the airline, now negotiating for a potential credit line from Brazil’s national development bank, entered the crisis with significant accumulated losses. Gol CE Paulo Kakinoff said that its reduced network does not burn cash on the flights themselves and the company had slashed all sorts of costs. Payroll expenses are down by half, with a mix of pay cuts and 5,400 workers on unpaid leave. Gol has also negotiated to defer lease payments with aircraft lessors with a grace period of six months, according to a securities filing on Tuesday. The measures have lowered spending by nearly half to about $66.82m per month, executives said, but there was little in the way of revenue to offset that.<br/>
Norwegian Air will postpone the release of its first-quarter results until May 28 and hold off its annual report until June 9, the firm said Tuesday. The company’s passenger volumes were down by 60% year-on-year in March as it grounded most of its planes due to global travel restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the new coronavirus. Norwegian Air also postponed its AGM until June 30. It had originally scheduled to release its January-March earnings report on April 30, and the annual report on April 14. “This is due to effects of COVID-19 outbreak on the reporting process, notably from temporary lay-offs and remote working,” the company said. <br/>
Fastjet Group’s Federal Airlines division has entered a restructuring process and given up most of its aircraft after a severe downturn in its business conducting shuttle and charter services to safari reserves in southern Africa. FedAir primarily serves US and European tourists but the coronavirus situation has badly affected these originating markets. Most of FedAir’s passengers have deferred travel into the fourth quarter of 2020 or the first half of 2021, the summer season in the southern hemisphere. As a result the carrier is not expecting substantial shuttle or charter bookings for “at least the next six months”, says Fastjet Group, with passengers only starting to return from December. FedAir has laid off 55% of its full-time personnel, while the rest have had salaries cut or modified. It has retained a limited number of crew members to operate its six remaining aircraft, which will form the core fleet for the remainder of the year.<br/>
UK leisure carrier Jet2 is now aiming to resume operations on 17 June, after it previously cancelled all flying until 1 May. The airline’s parent Dart Group says that it has extended the shutdown for its flights and holidays programme because of “the ongoing uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic”. Dart notes that decisions are “under constant review” in line with guidance from governments and relevant authorities. Cirium fleets data shows that Jet2 has 92 aircraft, of which 74 are Boeing 737-800s. The fleet also includes eight 737 Classics, nine 757s and a single Airbus A321. All of the aircraft are listed as being in storage. Jet2’s regular network spans 82 destinations, and it operates from nine UK bases, the carrier’s website indicates. “We recognise that these unprecedented events have had a huge impact on our customers, and we would like to thank them for their loyalty, understanding and patience,” says Dart.<br/>