Swiss International Air Lines plans to cut roughly 1,000 jobs over the next two years through voluntary measures rather than layoffs, its outgoing CE Thomas Kluehr said in remarks published on Saturday. The Swiss government has granted the airline more than E1b in loan guarantees to help it cope with the collapse in air travel due to the pandemic. Like many of its peers it decided to shrink its staff and fleet. “We are initially relying on three socially acceptable measures: a hiring freeze, part-time models with salary reductions, and early retirement,” Kluehr told newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende, adding that based on staff fluctuations in recent years it should be possible to cut 1,000 jobs without layoffs. Swiss and Edelweiss Air, a much smaller sister airline, have 10,475 employees, according to the Lufthansa Group's Q2 financial report here. Swiss has roughly 9,500 staff, Schweiz am Wochenende said. Kluehr, whose successor has yet to be announced, said the airline industry’s current crisis should last three to five years. In terms of job cuts much would depend on how quickly the market recovers, he added.<br/>
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For years, passenger jets have darted back and forth between Istanbul and Dubai, the two main hubs connecting airline passengers in the Middle East with destinations across the globe. But when Turkish Airlines and Emirates began reviving their pandemic-depleted schedules a few weeks ago, that particular route remained closed except for a few scattered cargo operations. Emirates announced in June that the Istanbul flights would resume, but so far hasn’t followed through on that plan. For now, it doesn’t sell tickets to Turkey before Dec. 1, while Turkish Airlines posts the flights on its website -- but then cancels bookings a few days prior to the travel date. The Dubai-Istanbul journey, which takes between 4 and 5 hours, constitutes about 50 weekly flights, ranking among Emirates’ busier routes. For Turkish Airlines, the corridor provided a welcome way to attract budget-minded passengers headed for western Europe or North America through the country’s giant new Istanbul hub. While neither airline has said why the services remain suspended, it comes at a time of worsening relations between the two nations. They are on opposing sides of a proxy war in Libya and disagree on issues ranging from Syria to Iraq and the eastern Mediterranean. The UAE supported a 2013 coup in Egypt that pushed out the country’s first democratically elected president, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood movement endorsed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey, meanwhile, backed Qatar in the face of a boycott by three of its Gulf neighbors, including the UAE, in 2017. “The UAE is in a competitive space with Turkey for what limited tourism there is,” said Ryan Bohl, a Middle East analyst at Stratfor Worldview, a geopolitical intelligence platform. “In Dubai in particular, they don’t want to give Turkish airlines any advantages.” Airlines are powerful assets for both countries. Turkish Airlines now offers flights to more countries than any other carrier, while Emirates is the biggest long-distance airline in the world, commanding an outsize fleet of Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s from its sprawling base in Dubai. Turkey has made no secret of its desire to position Istanbul as another mega-hub alongside Dubai. The new airfield inaugurated in late 2018 is designed to eventually serve 200m passengers annually once all six runways are in use.<br/>
Turkey's wealth fund is in talks to provide emergency funding to flag carrier Turkish Airlines, one of the country's hardest-hit companies when the coronavirus pandemic halted nearly all flights, four sources told Reuters. The sources close to the matter said the company, which flies to more destinations worldwide than any other airline, could receive capital or financing support, though nothing had yet been finalised. It was unclear how much funding the Turkey Wealth Fund (TVF) could make available in what one source called a “bailout”. TVF declined to comment. In a statement to the stock exchange, Turkish Airlines said the company had not received any information regarding talks being conducted for the provision of capital or financing support to the company. Turkish Airlines posted a loss of 2.23b lira ($287m) in Q2 when lockdowns at home and abroad were most widespread. It has agreed with a labour union to cut wages by 30-50% until the end of 2021 but avoided layoffs. “It is very clear that Turkish Airlines is in need of a bailout programme. This could be capital support or financing support,” one of the sources said. The source added that TVF conducted a broader study of struggling Turkish companies in the transportation and tourism sectors, suggesting other bailouts could be forthcoming.<br/>
Ethiopian Airlines Group is willing to provide planes, pilots and maintenance services to beleaguered rival South African Airways as part of a joint venture with that country’s government. Africa’s biggest airline is offering operational assistance, Ethiopian CEO Tewolde GebreMariam said. The carrier isn’t interested in helping with debt repayments or the cost of reducing the workforce, he said. “We don’t want to deal with the legacy issues — the debt, labor claims and so on because that is very difficult for us not only in terms of financial outlay but also in terms of managing the restructuring,” the CEO said. “We want to make it very easy for them to start the airline by providing airplanes, by providing expertise, pilots, technicians, leadership.” Ethiopian could provide more modern Airbus 350s and Boeing 787s, he said, in comparison with SAA’s Airbus 340 planes. Tewolde called on African governments to be more aggressive in reopening borders following months of travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ethiopian flights are on average 40% full, the CEO said. <br/>
Ethiopian Airlines Group says it will cover the medical insurance including repatriation, evacuation and quarantine costs related to Covid-19 for all passengers effective October 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021. A statement issued in Accra by the Airline said the global cover, dubbed: “Sheba Comfort” was part of the airline’s extra security measures to protect passengers and ensure that they travel with peace of mind. It said passengers would have their medical expenses up to E100,000 covered if they were diagnosed with Covid-19 during their travel in addition to quarantine costs up to E150 per day for a maximum of 14 days. “Sheba Comfort also includes repatriation and evacuation services whenever needed besides 24/7 assistance through the airline’s hotline,” it said. Ethiopian Group CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, said: “We are glad to be among the pioneer global airlines to introduce this extra security measure and provide global cover for Covid-19 with a view to boosting passengers’ confidence. Our Sheba Comfort insurance scheme is part of the measures we have been taking to ensure the health and wellbeing of passengers on the ground and on board.” <br/>
South African Airways’ maintenance arm, SAA Technical, has started reinstating its services after suspending them to four customers over outstanding payments. It says it has reached an agreement with two of these customers – SAA itself and sister carrier Mango – but is still holding talks with the other two. SAA Technical CE Adam Voss says the company is seeking “resolution and settlement” on the issue. “The decision we took to suspend services to our customers was not taken lightly,” he adds. Voss points out that the maintenance firm’s staff had been “adversely impacted” by cash-flow problems, and paid only 25% of their salaries in September, and the company needed to protect its commercial interests. Suspension of aircraft services to SAA was lifted on 30 September, after making payments, and that against Mango on 2 October. The maintenance firm says it is discussing with unions the balance of payments for workers’ September salaries. “We know that many of our customers were not able to trade and generate much-needed revenue to pay for services rendered,” says Voss. But he adds that customers will have to provide “upfront payment” for SAA Technical work.<br/>
United will resume 40 international routes in November, including many to leisure and beach destinations in Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The Chicago-based carrier said Friday it is attempting to benefit from an increase in leisure demand, as business travel remains particularly depressed amid the coronavirus pandemic. “For the month of November, we have adjusted our capacity to add flying for leisure travel to warm weather and beach destinations in Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean, along with ‘visiting friends and relatives’ travel across the globe,” said Patrick Quayle, United VP of international network and alliances. The new routes come as the weather in the northern hemisphere tips toward winter. The airline is banking on pent-up demand amongst potential holiday-makers who want a break in a warmer climate. The airline announced in August it will offer more daily nonstop flights connecting customers in the northern cities of Boston, Cleveland and New York to popular Florida destinations including Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa. United also says it will resume 29 international routes between the US and Asia, Europe and Latin America – flying 38% of its November 2019 international schedule. That’s up from 32% in October. The airline will reintroduce flights to Frankfurt from Denver and increase frequency to Frankfurt from Houston in Europe, and will convert cargo-only connections to passenger service between San Francisco and both Taipei and Seoul in Asia. United will also resume flights from Houston to both Santiago and Rio de Janeiro, as well as non-stop flights to numerous Caribbean and Central America destinations, including Antigua, Curacao, Grand Cayman, Managua, Nassau, St Lucia and Roatan. Overall, including domestic routes, the carrier will be flying 44% of its normal schedule, up four percentage points from October. <br/>
A Colombian court has upheld its injunction barring the national government from participating in Avianca’s debtor-in-possession financing, but the airline is confident its latest proposal will still be approved by the US bankruptcy court. The Bogota-based carrier last month secured new funding commitments as part of a revised $2b financing package, after previously warning that a decision by the administrative court of Cundinamarca to suspend a $370m loan from the Colombian government had put its earlier DIP funding proposal at risk. In a 30 September filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the airline states that the Colombian court has decided “not to lift its injunction”. While it “has already filed an appeal in respect of this ruling”, Avianca is confident that its restructured DIP proposal will still be given the go-ahead without the government loan. “As previously disclosed, Avianca’s DIP structure contemplates a backstop financing for the $240m portion reserved for the eventual participation by governments, and is not contingent on the injunction being lifted before DIP financing approval,” says the filing.<br/>
Singapore Airlines will continue to increase flights gradually, reaching about 15% of its usual passenger capacity by the end of this year. The carrier and its regional arm, SilkAir, will be reinstating flights to Brunei, Fukuoka in Japan, Kathmandu in Nepal and Male in the Maldives in the next three months. Flights will also increase on some existing routes. For example, SIA will be flying daily to and from Bangkok by December. It will also have daily flights to Melbourne by November and two flights daily on most days in December. Flight frequencies to other cities, including Dhaka, Hong Kong and Amsterdam, will also be stepped up. All other flights originally scheduled for October to December but not listed in its updated schedule are cancelled. Affected customers will be informed via SMS and e-mail. SIA said in an earlier update that its passenger capacity will reach about 11 per cent of its pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels by end-November. The airline also said that it expects to be operating at less than 50% of its usual capacity by the end of its financial year in March next year. <br/>