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American Airline's wholly-owned carrier Envoy is closing its bases at La Guardia and John F. Kennedy airports in New York, the regional airline told employees in a memo on Thursday. An Envoy spokeswoman confirmed the plan that will affect flight crew and maintenance teams at the New York bases, which have been closed since March due to COVID-19. Envoy, one of three regional carriers owned by American, did not say whether any jobs were at risk because of the closure. “It is important not to draw any conclusions about other American Eagle carriers and their operations due to this announcement,” Envoy’s Dee Temples said in the memo. The announcement follows news in July that American was teaming up with JetBlue Airways to boost flying options in New York and Boston. Under that agreement, American is expected to shift some JFK and LaGuardia airport slots to JetBlue and in return JetBlue will help feed traffic to American’s international destinations next year.<br/>

JetBlue Airways said Thursday it will add 24 routes later this year as the airline looks to generate cash and said it plans to fly some temporarily parked jets to the new destinations. The new routes will be in regions where the company anticipates increasing demand for leisure travel, JetBlue said. JetBlue said in June it would add 30 new domestic routes and entered a strategic partnership with American Airlines to boost flying options in New York and Boston. JetBlue previously said it expects Q3 capacity to be down at least 45% versus last year, following a conservative approach to adding flights back to its schedule.<br/>

UAE's newest airline Wizz Air Abu Dhabi on Thursday said it would postpone the launch of its operations by two weeks to October 16. “Due to prevailing COVID-19 related travel restrictions Wizz Air Abu Dhabi informs its passengers that it will postpone the launch of its operations by two weeks to October 16,” a spokesperson said. “Although it is beyond the airline’s control, Wizz Air sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience caused.” Passengers with bookings affected by this change will be automatically informed via e-mail, in case they had booked directly on wizzair.com or via the airline’s mobile app. The airline said that 120% of the original fare will automatically be uploaded to the customer’s WIZZ account, which can be used for 24 months for the purchase of Wizz Air products and services. Passengers can opt for cash refund and will be informed about the necessary steps for a bank transfer or transfer to a bank card in a separate e-mail. In this case, customers will be eligible for only 100% of the original fare.<br/>

Canada’s Transat, the parent company of leisure carrier Air Transat, posted revenues of just C$9.5m in its third fiscal quarter. During that period, it had just a single week of operations due to business interruptions from the coronavirus pandemic. That represents a 99% decline in revenue from the same period a year ago, the vacation specialist said Thursday. Transat shut down on 1 April after the government of Canada imposed numerous measures to attempt to contain the virus, including lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders that resulted in a sharp decline in passenger demand. Transat did not resume a partial schedule until 23 July, just nine days before the end of the company’s fiscal third quarter. “The reduction of operations to just one week for this quarter is unprecedented for Transat and for the industry as a whole,” Transat’s president and CE Jean-Marc Eustache says. The carrier says its net loss for the quarter was C$140m. And it says the future is still so uncertain that it will not venture a guess as to how business will fare going forward. “In the current situation, it is impossible for the moment to predict the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on future bookings, the partial resumption of flight operations and financial results,” Transat says. “Consequently, for now the corporation is not providing an outlook for summer 2020 or winter 2021. It’s now very clear that [the coronavirus’] effects are going to be long-lasting ones.” <br/>

RwandAir is no longer taking the Airbus A330neo or Boeing 737 Max jets it had ordered via lessors. The African operator was due to receive two of each type, but is instead working with future partner Qatar Airways on a new fleet plan. “The process of rationalising the fleet and working on the fleet mix is still a work in progress,” RwandAir CE Yvonne Makolo said. “In line with our growth with our future partner, the fleet mix will change,” she adds, noting the large number of types currently operated by the carrier. She confirms that RwandAir is “no longer moving forward with the neos for now”, adding that the decision to cancel the Max jets was taken “even pre-this crisis”. The new aircraft were intended to boost Rwandair’s capacity – with the A330neos launching a New York service – but the grounding of the Max and various delays affecting the A330neo meant none had been received by the time the global pandemic began. In the meantime, amid the challenges created by the coronavirus crisis, “we are going to keep the fleet as it is for now”, Makolo states, explaining that “we’ve had to slow down” network-expansion plans amid the current uncertainties.<br/>