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With no new federal stimulus in sight, Southwest Airline's chief announced management pay cuts and said he will seek to negotiate concessions from workers to avoid layoffs. In saying he believes the airline can navigate the crisis without furloughs, CEO Gary Kelly sought Monday to stand apart from rivals. American and United, for instance, have warned that 32,000 employees would collectively face layoffs after Congress was unable to come to agreement on a new relief package. Kelly said Southwest's revenue remains 70% below what it normally would be. The House of Representatives passed a new $2.2t relief measure favored by Democrats last week, but the GOP-led Senate wasn't expected to take it up. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been in talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and it is still uncertain whether a separate bill to aid the airlines. Kelly said Southwest needs to plan for cost reductions in case no further federal help comes through. He invoked the airline's maverick history and noted that labor is the highest area of cost. "We have a clear way to do all of this without layoffs or furloughs, at least through the end of next year," he said in a video message to the workforce. "As usual, we're different from the other airlines." He said he will work without his base salary through the end of next year. Managers and the board of directors will also take pay cuts. But when it comes to dealing with the unions, such as those representing pilots and flight attendants, Kelly said he needs to have cost cuts in place by Jan. 1. "We simply do not have time for long, complex, drawn-out negotiations. We need to move quickly and have cost savings in place," he said. Furloughs would only be a "last resort" if agreement can't be reached.<br/>

Virgin Atlantic said it had started COVID-19 testing for cabin crew and pilots on some flights, as hopes grow that the British government is close to allowing more widespread airport testing that could help the country's travel industry recover. Virgin Atlantic, which needed a rescue deal to help it survive the pandemic, said it would offer pilots and crew a test before they depart from Heathrow Airport with results provided in 30 minutes, to help give passengers confidence about flying. Virgin and other UK-based airlines including British Airways and easyJet are desperate for passenger numbers to rise but say demand is being held back by Britain's 14-day quarantine rules for arrivals from most countries. They have been calling for COVID-19 tests at airports as an alternative. Stephen Barclay, Britain's deputy finance minister, suggested on Saturday that an announcement from transport minister Grant Shapps and health minister Matt Hancock on airport testing could come "in the coming days". Virgin said it would start the testing on pilots and crews on flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong first. "However, we continue to call for the swift introduction of a wider coordinated passenger testing regime," the airline said.<br/>

AirAsia Group will pull out of the Japanese market, as the coronavirus pandemic is likely to keep a lid on demand for air travel, its Japanese unit said Monday. AirAsia Japan will discontinue domestic routes between Chubu Centrair International Airport in Aichi Prefecture and three locations — Sapporo, Sendai and Fukuoka — and one international route connecting with Taipei on Dec. 5, becoming the first airline operating in Japan to close its business due to the virus outbreak. When the struggling local unit launched an early retirement program in June to reduce labor costs, 70 out of 300 employees applied for the plan. Most other employees will be dismissed in November. "Despite our unrelenting efforts to sustain operations through successive and wide-ranging cost reduction initiatives, we have concluded that it would be an extremely challenging feat for us to continue operating without any visibility and certainty of a post-pandemic recovery path," said Jun Aida, AirAsia Japan's COO. AirAsia plans to retain its business license to operate flights, but it remains to be seen if it will re-enter the Japanese market, Aida said.<br/>

AirAsia Group has stopped funding its Indian affiliate as the global travel slump leaves the Malaysian group struggling to support a sprawling empire of no-frills airlines, people familiar with the matter said. AirAsia India’s future may now depend on Indian conglomerate Tata Group, its majority shareholder, which has provided emergency funding but has yet to commit to a full rescue, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter. The airline isn’t at any immediate risk of folding, the people said. India’s aviation minister said over the weekend that AirAsia was shutting up shop in the South Asian nation, though his office later suggested the comment was taken out of context. AirAsia India declined to comment, as did a representative for Tata Group. AirAsa Group didn’t respond to requests for comment after usual office hours. AirAsia said earlier Monday that its Japanese arm will cease flying immediately as the coronavirus outbreak continues to roil the airline industry. Once the poster child of the region’s revolution in low-cost travel, the group is seeking as much as 2.5b ringgit ($600m) to steer its way through the crisis. Long-haul arm AirAsia X has meanwhile said it needs to reach deals with major creditors to restructure debt amid “severe liquidity constraints” that threaten its ability to resume services and continue as a going concern. AirAsia India has survived on 3b rupees ($41m) in funding from Tata, which owns a 51% stake, with another round of financing expected soon, one of the people said.<br/>

SpiceJet will start regular flights to London from Delhi and Mumbai, a move it has long been pursuing. The no-frills airline will fly Airbus SE A330-900 neo aircraft on the routes, Chairman Ajay Singh said in an online briefing with reporters Monday. The flights will start from Dec. 4 and there will be two a week from Delhi and one from Mumbai, according to a company statement. The aircraft will have 353 seats in economy class and 18 in business. SpiceJet said in August it was awarded slots at London’s Heathrow airport, one of the most lucrative destinations for airlines, under an air bubble agreement between India and the UK. It had initially secured the slots from Sept. 1 to Oct. 23, but Heathrow extended them for the entire winter schedule. “This is a huge milestone for us and I am proud of the fact that SpiceJet will be the first Indian low-cost airline to operate non-stop long-haul flights to the UK,” Singh said. SpiceJet will be up against full service operators Emirates and Etihad Airways PJSC, which dominate westbound travel from India via their hubs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. <br/>

Algeria’s government plans to set up a company for domestic air transport to ease pressure on state carrier Air Algerie which will focus on international flights, Transport Minister Lazhar Hani said Monday. The announcement came after authorities said in August they would allow the private sector to create air and sea transport firms as part of economic reforms aimed at reducing reliance on oil and gas. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has repeatedly urged his government to improve air transport services in the largest African country by area. “Air Algerie cannot cover all domestic airports. Creating a new company will allow optimal care for the transportation of citizens across the country,” Hani told state radio.<br/>

Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air said passenger numbers were down 59% in September compared to the same month last year as the second surge of coronavirus infections across Europe holds back travel. Wizz said that this September it flew 60% of the capacity it flew last September on planes which were 65% full. Over the last month, many European countries brought back travel restrictions to fight a second wave of COVID-19, prompting Wizz to warn that the winter would be muted and that it would only operate at half capacity in October.<br/>

Philippine Airlines said Monday it is cutting up to a third of its workforce, or around 2,700 jobs, as the aviation sector continues to suffer from pandemic-driven travel curbs. The South-east Asian nation's carriers, which halted operations in mid-March as President Rodrigo Duterte imposed one of the world's strictest and longest coronavirus lockdowns, are slowly ramping up operations. "The collapse in travel demand and persistent travel restrictions on most global and domestic routes have made retrenchment inevitable," PAL said. The retrenchment programme this quarter could cover up to 35% of its roughly 7,800 personnel, it added. PAL is running less than 15% of its normal number of daily flights eight months after the Philippine government imposed travel curbs. The loss-making carrier, partly owned by Japan's ANA Holdings, lost roughly US$1b in revenues in March to May, when the company suspended its operations because of a travel ban.<br/>