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Southwest reported Thursday a loss of more than $1b, its biggest ever, in Q3, while saying it would burn less cash in the months to come as leisure bookings show signs of recovery from this year's coronavirus-driven collapse. Southwest, which is blocking middles seats for social distancing through November, said it would resume selling all available seats for travel from Dec. 1, referencing recent medical research about the coronavirus that shows the risk of breathing COVID-19 particles on an airplane “is virtually non-existent, with the combination of air filtration and face covering requirements.” It said the practise of keeping middle seats open had bridged it from the early days of the pandemic, “when we had little knowledge about the behavior of the virus, to now.” However, it will allow passengers on fuller flights to rebook to another flight if they wish, and warned that until a COVID-19 vaccine was made widely available, passenger traffic would remain fragile. The industry has so far failed to secure another $25b in payroll support for airlines slammed by the virus outbreak. “We urge our federal leaders to pass an economic relief package that includes a clean, six-month extension of the Payroll Support Program (PSP) to further protect jobs and crucial air travel,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said.<br/>

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said Thursday the airline is focusing its operations on leisure fliers, citing the difficulty in predicting when business travel will rebound in earnest from the coronavirus pandemic. Kelly said it usually takes about five years for corporate travel to begin expanding again after recessions. “You’ve got believe that will at least be the case now,” he added. “And I’ve said before, it may be 10 years before business travel recovers. I don’t know. But we’re going to be prepared to be more dependent upon consumer travel, and we will do well in that environment.” The airline reported Thursday its largest-ever quarterly loss of $1.2b as the pandemic continues to dent demand. Southwest’s Q3 operating revenue of $1.8b represented a 68% decline compared with a year earlier. However, its daily cash burn of roughly $16m in the period was an improvement over about $23m per day in Q2. Kelly said he believes the doomsday predictions are unlikely to materialize. “My opinion is that this too shall pass. Just like 9/11, everybody said the world is going to change, people aren’t going to fly. They were wrong,” he said. “I do think there is a need for business people to travel and I think that that will get back to ‘normal’ at some point. I’ll bet you it’s a long time from now... But that’s just my opinion. What we have to plan for is different. ... We’ve got to manage this risk, and so we have to assume we’ll be more dependent on consumers in terms of our demand in the future.”<br/>

Alaska Air Group lost $431m in Q3 2020, although the company insists its passenger and financial figures continue improving month by month. In the same period a year earlier, Alaska posted a $322m profit. The latest three-month figure is the third straight quarter of losses for the group, coming on top of respective first- and second-quarter losses of $232m and $214m. It brings to $877m total losses for the year to date. “We are gaining momentum as we climb our way out of this crisis,” says Alaska CE Brad Tilden. “Each of the last six months has been better than the month before in terms of flights offered and passengers carried, and to date, we’ve kept our net debt unchanged.” The Seattle-based carrier group, which owns Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, is burning about $4m daily in cash – a result of the pandemic-driven collapse in demand for air travel. However, that figure is around $1m per day lower than seen in the previous quarter. Alaska logged $701m in operating revenue during the third quarter, down 71% from $2.4b in the same period last year. Alaska furloughed about 400 staff in the July-to-September period and reduced its payroll by 4,000 other workers through voluntary redundancy programmes. Additionally, in July, Alaska received an invitation to join the Oneworld airline alliance; it expects to become a member on 31 March 2021.<br/>

Microsoft said Thursday it plans to buy alternative jet fuel for some Alaska Airlines flights, the technology giant’s latest effort to reduce carbon emissions, this time those generated by its frequent business travel. The pandemic has devastated air travel demand, particularly for lucrative business trips, but even the maker of the Teams video conferencing app is preparing for a rebound. “We believe that as we return to the skies, the travel routes we’ve had ... will resume at the level they had been before,” said Judson Althoff, executive VP of Microsoft’s worldwide commercial business. “This gives us the ability to get ahead of all of that because the climate crisis can’t wait.” Microsoft pledged in January to become “carbon negative” by 2030, meaning it would remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits. Commercial air travel contributes 2% to 3% of global carbon emissions. “Business travel has been one of the areas that is sort of like the long pole in the tent on trying to solve for sustainability,” said Althoff. “It’s easy to do certain things in the equation of pursuing being net zero and net negative in carbon, but travel and certainly air travel is one of the more difficult ones.” The fuel, made out of waste oil from sources like cooking, is blended with traditional jet fuel and will be distributed by Amsterdam-based SkyNRG at Los Angeles International Airport. Microsoft and Alaska declined to say how much the fuel will cost or disclose the volume purchased. Microsoft said it is meant to cover carbon emissions generated from its business travel on the company’s most commonly booked routes: from Seattle to Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose, California.<br/>

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has started paying compensation to the victims of the Airbus A320 crash in Karachi on May 22, 2020. In this regard, families of three victims and two lone surviving passengers were paid Rs10 million (Dh226,991) each. The survivors include Muammad Zubair an engineer by profession and Zafar Masood, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bank of Punjab. A total of 97 persons had lost their lives including 7 crew members. The national flag carrier has also paid for the treatment of Zubair. According to PIA, besides the two surviving passengers, families of three other passengers were also paid Rs 10 million each. In the coming days, the 22 families affected by the plane crash will receive compensation of Rs 222.8 million (Dh 5.043 million). This compensation is being paid in case of burning or loss of vehicles and household items.<br/>

Emirates will next month deploy an Airbus A380 for some of its flights between Dubai and Amman as it boosts frequencies and capacity on the Middle Eastern route. The Jordanian capital will become the sixth city in Emirates’ network to be served with A380s, joining Cairo, Guangzhou, London Heathrow, Moscow and Paris. Emirates will expand its Dubai-Amman schedule to 10 weekly services, three of which will be operated with an A380 from 4 November. “The Emirates A380 experience is sought after amongst travellers,” says the airline, which intends to “continue to expand its deployment in line with the gradual return in demand and operational approvals”. Emirates began reactivating its A380 fleet in mid-July, reintroducing the superjumbo on its routes to London and Paris. The airline added Moscow to its A380 network last month, citing “strong passenger demand”. Its 115-strong fleet of A380s had been parked since late March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dubai-based carrier takes a different view on the A380 to other operators of the type, many of which have accelerated its retirement or kept it grounded since the pandemic began to severely impact demand for air travel. Gulf rival Qatar Airways, for instance, does not expect to operate its A380s for at least two years.<br/>