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Avianca Holdings expects the Colombian government to play a key role in its restructuring efforts after widespread travel bans forced it to declare bankruptcy, according to court documents. The carrier, which filed for Chapter 11 protection Sunday, said that due to its importance in the Colombian domestic air travel network, the government “may be one of the key stakeholders” as it reorganizes. The governments of El Salvador, Ecuador, and, potentially, Peru, may also play a role, CFO Adrian Neuhauser wrote in a declaration to the court. Colombia Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla said that the government is considering providing Avianca a loan. He had previously suggested an equity stake, but appeared to rule that out Monday. The airline, which has said it plans to continue to fly throughout the court-supervised process, has about half of the market share for domestic flights in the country. It operates frequent flights on routes such as Bogota to Medellin, which is the busiest in Latin America. Avianca filed for protection from its creditors in the Southern District of New York, listing as much as $10b in liabilities and the same amount in assets. The company said it will not make bond payments due Monday. The bankruptcy will be felt widely in the rest of the struggling airline industry, with providers of aircraft, jet engines and maintenance services among Avianca’s biggest unsecured creditors. <br/>

Avianca is to shut down its Peruvian division, and cut back the fleet of other carriers, as part of the reshaping of the company being undertaken following its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Avianca Holdings sought protection on 10 May in a joint filing covering several of its airline divisions. But it says it plans to “commence a wind-down” of its Avianca Peru division, as part of the “essential right-sizing efforts” to emerge as a more competitive company. Closing the Peruvian operation will allow Avianca to “renew its focus on core markets” once the restructuring is complete. Avianca Holdings’ bankruptcy protection filings state that a “significant number” of aircraft across its various airline fleets will be surplus to its requirements. After the initial demand shock and a slow return to service, it says, air travel will stabilise at 20-30% below pre-crisis levels. Avianca had been operating a 156-jet fleet – including 143 passenger and 13 cargo aircraft – plus 15 turboprops at the end of 2019. The company says it has started a comprehensive review of the fleet including suitability of individual aircraft to the Bogota hub which, while still under way, is likely to result in its returning excess aircraft to lessors and lenders.<br/>

United said Monday that starting next week it will notify passengers ahead of time if their flight is expected to be "closer to full capacity," allowing them to re-book on a different flight or receive a travel credit. The new policy -- which will last through June 30 and will also be applied at the gate if more than 70% of passengers have checked in -- follows a photograph of what appeared to be a packed United flight on Saturday social media. United said 85% of its flights are less than half full, but given a drastically reduced flying schedule in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, "there are a small number of flights where our customers are finding planes fuller than they expect."<br/>

Canada announced a plan Monday to help its largest companies hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic -- but tied loans and financial aid to its climate goals. Tens of millions of dollars will be available for companies with annual revenues of more than C$300m, to mitigate lockdowns caused by the outbreak, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said. He told a news conference the cash would "make sure that companies that came into this crisis on a strong footing, get to the other side, and can rebound quickly." "Companies that receive this funding will be required to commit to future climate disclosures, and environmental sustainability goals," Morneau added. Canada relies on a patchwork of carbon taxes and cap-and-trade systems to help reach its Paris Agreement target of reducing CO2 emissions by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030. Details of the corporate loans and grants program are to be released over the coming days. Morneau cited airlines as an example of companies that might tap into the emergency funding. The nation's flagship carrier Air Canada, after a profitable 2019, slashed 90% of flights and furloughed 20,000 employees as its Q1 losses topped C$1b.<br/>

Internal Air New Zealand documents predict it will be two years before the airline can hope to be back at 70% of its pre-Covid-19 long haul business. The airline is flying just 5% of its usual international schedule and is in the process of laying off 950 full-time cabin crew across its Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 fleets. It has already cut 300 pilot jobs, despite collecting more than $70m in wage subsidies and being granted a $900m government loan. A day in May 2019 would have seen the airline using 1500 of its 3000 cabin crew to operate its daily services. Now in May 2020, it is using 150 on wide-body planes and just 53 on narrow body or single-aisle planes used on domestic routes. In a redundancy briefing document to workers the company said the global pandemic has decimated the aviation industry, with Air New Zealand operating at just 5% of its normal international capacity, and it will not be scaling up for a long time. "We are now seeing the real likelihood we will be a much smaller airline of the foreseeable future, and that the recovery will be a lot longer and slower than previously anticipated," the document said. One year from now Air New Zealand expects to be 30% smaller, and it is unlikely to see an improvement in revenue in 2020, the company said. Redundancy briefing papers to staff show Air New Zealand is considering a union proposal to cut cabin crews' daily rate by 7%, the equivalent of reducing fortnightly pay by a day.<br/>

Sony and airline ANA Holdings said Monday they have agreed to work together to develop remotely controlled avatar robots. Under the basic agreement, Sony AI will provide its artificial intelligence, robotics and sensing technologies to Avatarin of the ANA group, a developer of stick-shaped avatar robots that can be controlled remotely by computers. With the new coronavirus pandemic restricting human contact, the two companies hope to use the robots in a wide range of situations such as for teleworking, nursing care at homes and shopping as well as for sightseeing. “There will be an increasing demand for various remote robotic solutions that can perform physical tasks, especially in high-risk environments and situations where human contact and movement are restricted,” said Sony AI CEO Hiroaki Kitano. The two companies aim to “establish a new social foundation for avatars and raise the level of social life,” he said. ANA has said it is developing its avatar technology to offer new services such as keeping in touch with aging parents living far away or having cabin attendants give lectures remotely.<br/>