The world will have a smaller airline industry as a result of the coronavirus crisis with many privately funded carriers set to go under and governments throwing "good money after bad" to keep national champions afloat, Wizz Air's CEO said. Worst hit will be traditional carriers relying on a hub-and-spoke network and business traffic, but Wizz expects demand for its own cheap fares and direct routes to snap back quickly once the pandemic fades, the Hungarian airline’s co-founder said. Wizz aims to widen a gap in unit costs compared to the rest of the airline industry thanks to regular deliveries of new Airbus AIR.PA aircraft, CE Jozsef Varadi added. Co-founded in 2003 by Varadi, a former head of Hungary’s defunct national carrier Malev, Wizz Air is one of Europe’s largest budget carriers with a focus primarily on central and eastern parts of the continent. He bemoaned a lack of political coordination over travel restrictions and other measures to tackle the crisis and urged policymakers to pay more attention to the economic impact. “As far as Wizz is concerned, the moment COVID falls away I think we will be back to 2019 levels,” Varadi said. “We can go very quickly, but the issue is not underlying consumer demand; the issue is restrictions imposed by governments.” Wizz is operating on half normal traffic now, he said.<br/>
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South Korean budget carriers will deliver cargo in their passenger aircrafts, joining the move already made by full-service carriers to weather the shock from a plunge in air travel across the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport said on Tuesday that it has conducted safety review and issued operation approval to the country’s three low cost carriers T’way Air, Jeju Air, and Jin Air that have submitted plans to carry cargo using passenger aircrafts. The move comes after larger industry players Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines received the green light from the government in May to deliver cargo using their passenger jets. In a move to make use of grounded planes, the government in April introduced a safety operation standard for passenger aircrafts to carry cargo instead. Under the new program, Korea’s two full-service carriers – Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines – could have improved profits by delivering freights in their passenger jets. An unnamed ministry official said that carrying cargo on passenger seat space is expected to allow air carriers to load 4 tons (B737 aircraft) to 10 tons (B777 aircraft) of additional cargo compared to when only lower cargo compartment is used, which helps expand transportation capability.<br/>
Jeju Air, South Korea's biggest low-cost carrier, on Wednesday resumed flights to the Chinese city of Harbin to meet travel demand from businessmen and students. Jeju Air will offer one flight a week on the Incheon-Harbin route from Wednesday after suspending the route for more than seven months amid the new coronavirus pandemic, the company said. The carrier has suspended most of its 76 international routes since March as countries strengthened entry restrictions to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Four international routes from Incheon to Weihai, Osaka, Manila and Harbin and eight domestic routes are available as of Wednesday, a company spokesman said.<br/>
India’s Jet Airways could be flying again in as little as four to six months after its creditors approved a bid from entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan and asset management firm Kalrock. “The expectation is that in the next four to six months one should be able to see Jet back in the skies again,” the airline’s resolution professional Ashish Chhawchharia said Monday. Before that can happen, he adds, the airline needs approval from the National Company Law Tribunal, which adjudicates issues relating to Indian companies. It also needs slots and traffic rights to be allotted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. “We need to file for the NCLT’s approval, who will check the mandated compliance of the plan and whether the process was carried out properly or not and once they give the approval, that’s when, you know, the implementation steps would start,” he says. He adds that Jet Airways expects to be able to get back the slots “which were earlier enjoyed” before the carrier went bust. Regarding the airline’s fleet, Chhawchharia says the airline now owns “about 12 aircraft”, with “a couple” outside India. The rest, he says, are in India under his custody. In August, Jet made a bullet payment of $13m to the lessors of six Boeing 777-300ERs so that it could take ownership of the aircraft and their engines.<br/>
A woman says she was left feeling “emotionally violated” after Alaska Airlines allegedly kicked her off a flight for wearing a respirator helmet. Judy Ferguson, a 75-year-old with terminal pulmonary fibrosis, was due to fly from Fairbanks International Airport in Alaska to Seattle on 10 October for a meeting with her doctor. Although she wore an N95 mask and a visor while boarding, she then changed into a respirator helmet on board as she believed it was safer. This did not align with the airline’s mask policy. “The agent told me to take off my respirator helmet,” she said. “I told him I’m 75, I have lung fibrosis, which is terminal. I’m going to critical appointments in Seattle, at University of Washington Medical Center. And I will not remove my ventilator helmet.” Ferguson claimed that she tried to explain that her helmet would be safer than the surgical or cloth face coverings accepted by the carrier on the four-and-a-half-hour flight, but the crew member alerted his supervisor. She said she was told to get off the plane six times, before Alaska crew removed her bags and escorted her from the aircraft. Ferguson alleges she was met by a police officer who manhandled her to the airline ticket desk. “I was emotionally violated,” she said. “I had tremendous stress. A bruise on my arm. It was beyond belief!” Alaska staff offered to rebook her on another flight leaving two hours later if she calmed down, but Ferguson said she turned them down and left the airport.<br/>