unaligned

Southwest said Thursday it lost $915m in Q2 compared with $741m in net income a year earlier and warned that travel demand will likely remain depressed until there’s a vaccine or treatment for the coronavirus. The airline said demand has softened in recent weeks, echoing comments from other airline executives who have said a spike in Covid-19 cases coupled with travel restrictions in states like New York have hurt ticket sales that began recovering in late spring. Southwest estimated its Q3 capacity to decrease between 20% and 30% over last year. Revenue dropped nearly 83% to a little over a $1b from $5.9b last year, though sales in the quarter were higher than analysts’ estimates. “We were encouraged by improvements in May and June leisure passenger traffic trends, compared with March and April; however, the improving trends in revenue and bookings have recently stalled in July with the rise in COVID-19 cases,” CEO Gary Kelly said. “We expect air travel demand to remain depressed until a vaccine or therapeutics are available to combat the infection and spread of COVID-19.” Kelly said Southwest will “aggressively and frequently” adjust its flight schedule in “this volatile demand environment.”<br/>

American fighter aircraft approached an Iranian passenger plane over Syria on Thursday, a US military official said, an incident that Iranian media said prompted the pilot to abruptly drop altitude and triggered panic aboard. Iran’s Fars News and the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that the Iranian Mahan Air plane was flying above the Tanf area of eastern Syria, where a U.S. military base is located, when two jets approached, identifying themselves by radio as American. The pilot responded by dropping the aircraft to avoid collision, the official Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting news agency said. Videos circulating on social media showed Arabic and Farsi speakers aboard the plane, some of them suffering injuries. One video showed the plane seemingly suddenly dropping as women screamed in the background. Another featured a Farsi-speaking man who suffered a head injury that marked his face with a thin line of blood. F-15 jet was on a “routine air mission” near the Tanf garrison, an isolated outpost, when it “conducted a standard visual inspection of a Mahan Air passenger airliner at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters from the airliner.” “Once the F-15 pilot identified the aircraft as a Mahan Air passenger plane, the F-15 safely opened distance from the aircraft. The professional intercept was conducted in accordance with international standards,” Urban said in a statement.<br/>

A Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant died after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month in California, following an employee training at the airline's headquarters. Hawaiian Airlines President & CEO Peter Ingram told employees in an internal memo distributed on Tuesday that Jeff Kurtzman, a senior Los Angeles-based flight attendant, died this week. He had been a part of the airline since 1986, "and over the past three decades had become well known to his in-flight colleagues for his passion for discovering new places, people and cultures; his terrific sense of humor and knack for easy conversation; and his caring heart," Ingram wrote in the memo. "Our in-flight team has reached out to Jeff's husband and we will, of course, offer all the support that we can," Ingram also wrote. "I know you will join me and our Hawaiian Airlines 'ohana in keeping his family in your thoughts during this time." Fourteen flight attendants, including Kurtzman, recently tested positive for COVID-19 after attending training at Hawaiian Airlines' Honolulu headquarters in late June and were in quarantine, according to the airline, which cancelled its training because of the circumstances.<br/>

Emirates has come up with a unique way to boost confidence in air travel. The Dubai-based carrier on Thursday offered to cover the medical expenses of its passengers should they be diagnosed with Covid-19 while away from home. Emirates specializes in the type of long-distance flights that have been hit hardest by national lockdowns and fears about contracting the disease in an enclosed space. The company will pay expenses of up to E150,000 and quarantine costs of 100 euros a day for 14 days, according to a statement. The offer, good through Oct. 31, is “free of cost to its customers regardless of class of travel or destination,” the airline said. Carriers have tried everything from mandatory masks to pre-flight blood tests and empty middle seats to boost confidence. Still, many restrictions remain in place even as some governments move to ease them. That will make it harder for passengers to take advantage of the Emirates offer. “We know people are yearning to fly as borders around the world gradually re-open,” Emirates’ Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said. “They are seeking flexibility and assurances should something unforeseen happen during their travel.”<br/>

An international investigation team has completed a preliminary analysis of data from the black boxes of a Ukrainian passenger plane mistakenly shot down by Iran in January, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Thursday. "The download and preliminary data analysis was an important milestone in what must be a thorough and transparent safety investigation," said TSB chair Katy Fox, without providing details on the results of the analysis. "The work in Paris is finished, but the investigation is far from over. There are still many key questions that need to be answered," she said. "We have urged Iran to release factual information from the recorders as soon as possible," Fox said, adding that Iran -- which is leading the investigation -- has not authorized the TSB to release details. A team of investigators from the same countries as the victims of the plane crash met this week at France's Bureau for Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), in Paris, to begin extracting the data. On Monday, the BEA announced data from the black boxes had been successfully downloaded.<br/>

Spirit Airlines has reached an agreement with Europe’s Airbus to defer aircraft deliveries during 2020 and 2021, as the coronavirus pandemic weighs on travel demand, CFO Scott Haralson said Thursday. The carrier will now take three additional aircraft in 2020, bringing deliveries this year to 12 instead of an expected 16, Haralson told analysts. He said Spirit now has 16 aircraft scheduled for delivery next year, instead of the 25 originally expected. The aircraft will be secured through a combination of debt financing, sales leaseback transactions and direct lease arrangements, he said.<br/>

Madagascar will take full control of its national airline after ending a partnership with Air Austral, paving the way for potential new deals for the national carrier. “The most logical decision for Air Austral was to fully withdraw from Air Madagascar” given the current global health and economic context, the Saint Denis, Reunion Island-based airline said. The deal was concluded through a swap involving Air Austral’s stake in the national airline and Caisse Nationale de Prevoyance Sociale of Madagascar’s shares in Air Austral, according to the Reunion Island airline. There’s no financial implication on either side. Malagasy authorities are in talks for Ethiopian Airlines Group, Africa’s largest carrier, to buy part of Air Madagascar, Antananarivo-based Midi Madagasikara reported on Wednesday.<br/>