United Airlines said on Friday it would introduce eight new routes and add more flights to 19 destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America. The carrier said it would begin selling tickets for new flights from Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Cleveland from Oct. 17. Airline executives have signaled a slow but steady improvement in leisure demand but do not foresee a recovery to 2019 levels for at least two years.<br/>
star
Every airline is struggling, but each struggles in its own way. United relies far more than its rivals on international travel, which is expected to take far longer than domestic travel to bounce back. So the airline is fine-tuning its business, from maintenance to flight planning, as it tries to predict where a wary public will fly. “We can really throw away the crystal ball, which was hazy to begin with,” said Ankit Gupta, United’s VP for domestic network planning. When the virus devastated travel in March and April, United took hundreds of planes out of circulation. Since July, it has brought back more than 150, including those flown by regional carriers, but about 450 are still stashed away. To understand when and how demand might recover, United is tracking indicators like national travel restrictions, the travel habits of dual citizens and the economic ties between countries. “It’s a bit of gut feeling, to be quite candid,” said Patrick Quayle, who oversees the airline’s international network planning. Most of the people still flying are staying within the country, visiting friends and relatives or vacationing outdoors. So the airline is gauging how many flights to add to snowy destinations, while adding winter service to Florida from the Northeast and the Midwest. It also plans to expand service on dozens of routes to tropical destinations near and within the United States.<br/>
Calin Rovinescu will retire as Air Canada’s top executive in February and hand the reins to CFO Michael Rousseau, who takes over an airline with a strong balance sheet but a huge rebuilding task ahead of it. Rovinescu rejoined the Montreal-based airline in 2009 and has been credited with saving it from a second brush with bankruptcy. Its 3,575% gain made it the top-performing stock in the S&P/TSX Composite Index for the 10-year period that ended Dec. 31, 2019. Like other major airlines, it lost much of its value since Covid-19 hit, with the stock dropping 68% this year amid the crushing restrictions on air travel. “I have enjoyed a unique and very special relationship with Air Canada and our outstanding people for over three decades, on the front lines of many of the company’s defining moments,” Rovinescu said Friday. “I am especially proud of the company’s transformation over the last dozen years during which we built Air Canada into one of the world’s leading carriers.” Rovinescu criticized PM Justin Trudeau in the summer for Canada’s Covid-19 travel restrictions, which have been stricter than a number of other developed countries. A mandatory 14-day quarantine for all incoming travelers, regardless of origin, and a lack of airline-specific government support have put Canadian airlines at a disadvantage compared to global competitors, he said. Rousseau joined Air Canada in 2007 to head its finances after a stint as president of Hudson’s Bay Co. He added deputy chief executive to his list of titles in 2018 in a move that saw him gain significant oversight over fleet planning, pension fund administration and Air Canada Rouge, the company’s budget carrier, among other functions. Analysts have been anticipating news of a leadership succession for some time. <br/>
The Canadian government isn't ruling out the possibility of taking a stake in Canadian airlines, like WestJet and Air Canada, as ministers consider how to help the sector in its struggles amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic Leblanc confirmed the possibility during an interview airing Sunday. Solomon pointed out that in a bid to save their own airlines, Germany took at 20% stake in Lufthansa. When he asked Leblanc if Canada is considering taking such a step here, Leblanc said the government "is very much discussing that." "I know, my colleagues, [Transport Minister] Marc Garneau, and [Finance Minister] Chrystia Freeland, are looking at a whole series of options of what government support might look like for the sector. So we haven't made any decisions in that level of detail yet, but they're very much discussing that," Leblanc said of the action Germany took. Air Canada was partially owned by the government until 1989. WestJet was a publicly-traded company, but went private in a $5b deal last year. Air Canada had said in June that it would suspend service to 30 regional routes, which mainly impacted travellers in the Maritimes, Quebec and Saskatchewan. <br/>
Ethiopia is looking to complete a prolonged report into the deadly crash of the national carrier’s Boeing 737 Max jet by the second anniversary of the incident in March. The country’s civil aviation authority and Ethiopian Airlines Group will carry out their own safety checks on the model before considering a return to the skies, Amdye Ayalew Fanta, the government’s chief investigator, said by phone on Friday. The 2019 crash outside Addis Ababa killed all 157 people on board and led to the grounding of the Max worldwide. “We are working on the investigation,” said Amdye. “We are trying to expedite so the report is released before the anniversary.” Progress has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, he said. Amdye was speaking after Europe’s top aviation regulator said he’s satisfied that changes to the Max have made the plane safe enough to return to the region’s skies by the end of this year. Boeing’s target is also for 2020, though the FAA in the US hasn’t made a prediction about timing.<br/>
Japan’s biggest airline, ANA, has turned to billions of dollars in loans and a government tourism campaign to weather the slump in air travel and could take advantage of accounting rules to avoid aircraft writedowns. Like other carriers, ANA has been burning through cash to maintain jets that are either grounded or flying with too few passengers during the coronavirus pandemic, pushing it to an operating loss of 159b yen ($1.51b) for the April-June quarter. Sources said Wednesday that ANA Holdings has secured $3.8b in subordinated loans from state-backed and private lenders. That means it will have raised $13.29b of debt to cope with the coronavirus fallout, says Yasuhito Tsuchiya, a senior analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. “It looks like they will have enough to survive,” said Tsuchiya, who forecasts the carrier is on course for a record operating loss of around 400b yen for the full year ending March 31. The airline is slashing personnel costs through redundancies and pay cuts. It is also getting government help including a waiver on airport landing fees. ANA has said it doesn’t expect its international air travel to fully recover until 2024. Story has more details.<br/>
When Singapore Airlines said seats on its superjumbo-turned-restaurant sold out in 30 minutes, one common question was: “Who on Earth would want to do that?” Plenty of people, it turns out. For every person who doesn’t relish flying, let alone schlepping to the airport and onto a parked plane for some reheated airline food, there’s another who can’t get enough of the aviation experience and is willing to shell out (big bucks) for it. Singapore Airlines is opening up two of its Airbus SE A380s at Changi Airport as temporary restaurants for two weekends later this month, offering dishes from its menu, two complimentary alcoholic drinks and free flow of other beverages. A meal in a suite costs S$642 ($472), while prices are S$321 for a business-class seat, S$96.30 for premium economy and S$53.50 for economy. At the top end, that sort of money would easily buy you an eight-course degustation at Odette, consistently ranked as one of the world’s best restaurants. Mayur Patel was willing to apply for the sweet suite seat. The regional sales director for travel data provider OAG Aviation Worldwide said he wanted to experience the suite again after flying in one once from Sydney to Singapore. As a member of Singapore Airlines’ top-tier Solitaire PPS Club for 21 years, Patel also wanted to support the carrier because he feels attached to the brand. Story lists his insights into what attracted people to the offer.<br/>