Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligents will tap its loyalty program to get a cash advance of 1.2b reais ($225.81m), the company said Monday, as airlines worldwide continue to struggle financially due to the pandemic. The deal will work through advanced ticket sales, trips that Gol will then have to provide to the clients of the loyalty program, Smiles Fidelidade. Smiles is a separate company but is controlled by the Brazilian airline. Gol regularly taps Smiles to get cash advances, but this is likely to be the single largest advanced ticket sale yet. Smiles is a profitable company and Gol has tried to fully absorb it in the past to avoid splitting the dividends with independent investors. But the transaction has run into strong shareholder resistance and regulatory hurdles.<br/>
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Azul has laid off nearly 1,000 employees, or about 7% of its staff, as it contends with the economic fallout from measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday. "That's the number (of layoffs) up to now," said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss private operational matters. Latin American airlines have been ravaged by the pandemic, which has brought travel on many routes to a near standstill. Some nations, such as Argentina, have banned most commercial air travel. Earlier on Monday, Abhi Shah, Azul's chief revenue officer, said that while market conditions are improving, flight capacity in August will be just 35% of pre-pandemic levels. <br/>
El Al said Monday it had reached a bailout deal with the Israeli government that could lead to its nationalization after being crippled by the coronavirus pandemic. The airline had been in talks on a rescue package for weeks after suffering from the steep decline in air travel sparked by the virus. Since the outbreak, it has suspended passenger flights indefinitely and carried out scores of layoffs. Under the deal, the company will receive loans of $250m, most of which will be guaranteed by the state. The company is expected to raise an additional $150m by selling shares that, if they aren’t sold entirely to the public, will be bought by the state. The agreement awaits approval by a parliamentary committee. “This evening the first step was taken to return El Al to the runway,” said Transportation Minister Miri Regev. “We will work to assist the company during the interim as is needed with the aim of protecting Israel's aviation independence.” The company was previously state-owned until it was privatized more than 15 years ago. <br/>
Air Arabia’s new Abu Dhabi-based spin-off is to open services in mid-July with initial operations to two Egyptian cities. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi is to operate to Alexandria, from 14 July, and Sohag from the following day. It will commence services with a pair of Airbus A320s stationed in the United Arab Emirates capital. Alexandria will be served thrice-weekly while Sohag will be a weekly connection. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi is being launched as a joint venture in co-operation with Etihad Airways. Etihad Aviation Group chief Tony Douglas says the carrier will “offer greater convenience and direct access” to new markets. “We look forward to seeing the emirate continue to prosper as the current global situation improves and markets begin to re-open,” he adds. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi is one of two budget airline operations to start up in the city alongside Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, which is aiming to start flights in the autumn after it opened new links to the city from Europe.<br/>
For more than two months, airport terminals in South Africa sat eerily silent. As the spread of coronavirus crippled demand for air travel across the globe, the country enacted one of the world's strictest lockdowns on March 27, effectively banning all commercial passenger flights. South Africa has seven main domestic carriers, and as a result of these unprecedented times, aviation economist Joachim Vermooten says four of them, as of this writing, have entered business rescue, a bankruptcy protection process. Two of the carriers are divisions of Comair, and the others are the state-owned South African Airways and SA Express. SAA is in discussions to receive a $1.2b bailout from the government. While SAA's financial troubles began before the lockdown, Vermooten says coronavirus has compounded the situation. Yet amidst this turbulent time, South African domestic low-cost carrier FlySafair says its business model will help it weather the storm. It returned to the skies mid-June, having so far managed to avoid business rescue. That doesn't mean it will be easy, says Kirby Gordon, FlySafair's head of Sales and Distribution. "Lockdown means a total shutdown of all operations and zero revenue, which means that clawing back the losses endured during this lockdown is going to be a slow process," Gordon says. FlySafair launched in 2014 and has since grown into one of the country's most recognized brands.<br/>
AirAsia Group Monday reported a Q1 loss, battered by a collapse in air travel demand resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as losses on a fuel hedges settlement. AirAsia reported a net loss of 803.3m ringgit ($187.91m) for the three-month period ended March, from 96.1m ringgit net profit in the year-ago period. This was the company's biggest Q1 loss since it listed on the Malaysian bourse in November 2004, based on Refinitiv data. Revenue was 15% lower at 2.31b ringgit. Passengers carried during the quarter fell 22% to 9.85m, while the passenger load factor - a measure of how full planes are - dropped 11 basis points to 77%. Cost per unit rose 36%. The group also said fair value losses on derivatives, as well as additional depreciation and interest on operating lease aircraft had also impacted earnings. AirAsia said demand had been positive since the carrier gradually restarted domestic routes after grounding most of its fleet in March due to movement restrictions to contain the coronavirus. "We are aiming to increase our flight frequencies to around 50% of our pre-COVID operations and we look forward to resuming all domestic routes in the coming weeks and months," President for the group's airlines business Bo Lingam said.<br/>
Indian airline Vistara is in talks with planemakers and leasing companies to delay taking delivery of some aircraft, the carrier's chief strategy officer said on Monday, as Covid-19 hits demand for air travel. Vistara, owned by India's Tata Sons and SIA, placed an order for 13 A320-neo family aircraft from Airbus in 2018 and said it would take another 37 Airbus planes from leasing companies - all due for delivery between 2019 and 2023. It also has six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner widebody planes on order, primarily for international flights, due to be delivered in 2020 and 2021. Delivery of some planes have already been pushed back due to logistics issues and production delays at the planemakers, as countries went into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, said Vinod Kannan, chief strategy officer at Vistara. "We are looking to see how we can push back some of the deliveries not just because of the delays in production but also from a commercial perspective," said Kannan.<br/>
Virgin Australia Holdings bondholders asked the country’s deals regulator to let them pitch a plan to rescue the airline in an effort to derail a sale to Bain Capital LP. Singapore-based Broad Peak Investment Advisers and other bondholders told the Takeovers Panel that some elements of the Deloitte-run auction of the airline were “unacceptable” and effectively barred a different plan from being put to creditors, the panel said Monday. Bain agreed to buy Virgin Australia last month in one of the biggest bets on the industry since it was hammered by the coronavirus epidemic. Unsecured bondholders were owed A$1.99b ($1.4b) when the airline collapsed in April under A$6.8b in debt. Deloitte said it’s not possible yet to determine how much of that debt can be recovered. The bondholders’ plans threaten to prolong a rescue that was driven through by Deloitte before Virgin Australia ran out of cash. The bondholders asked the panel to let them make “an alternative proposal.” The Takeovers Panel hasn’t decided whether to conduct proceedings on the matter.<br/>