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Chinese budget carrier Spring Airlines is leveraging its low-cost position to attract customers with cheap fares as the country’s domestic aviation market recovers, pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy that could soon turn profitable. Domestic capacity at Shanghai-based Spring rose over 50% in September compared with a year earlier, while passenger traffic was up 47% and the airline’s load factor, or percentage of seats filled, neared 90% as it redirected planes from closed international markets. Spring’s market share has doubled from 2% a year ago to 4%, according to broker Jefferies. The private airline’s success in the Chinese market, traditionally dominated by full-service state-owned carriers, could herald a wider global trend. Investors expect low-cost, domestic-focused carriers will be the first to recover from the pandemic as leisure travellers focus on value and corporate travel takes longer to recover. “We do see low-cost carriers (LCCs) rebounding the fastest out of all airlines across most regions, not just China,” BOCOM International analyst Luya You said. “The reasons are that LCCs can offer lower prices due to lower costs as well as fill their planes more efficiently than full-service carriers.” During the COVID-related downturn, Chinese budget operators like Spring and Air China subsidiary Shenzhen Airlines have been expanding relative to rivals. Spring’s shares have rebounded to pre-COVID levels, compared with declines of up to 25% at the state-owned big three airlines, as investors bet on China’s only listed budget carrier.<br/>

An Israeli businessman, who’s been operating in the United Arab Emirates’ commercial hub of Dubai for the past 14 years, is in talks to buy Israel’s Israir Airlines, hoping a new normalization pact between the countries will offer an opportunity for expanded operations. NY Koen Group’s CEO, Naum Koen, was born in Ukraine, became a naturalized Israeli citizen in 1994 and in 2006, using his Ukrainian passport set up shop in the emirate with a diamond-cutting and supply business. It’s since grown into a holding company involved in diamonds, private aviation, digital technologies, construction and security. Now, freed from operating under the radar as an Israeli dual-national, he’s negotiating to buy Israir based on a valuation of about $25m. He estimates the airline will need a cash infusion of up to $20m to pay for debts and improvements. “The recent development of the peace treaty between Israel and the UAE, and the peace negotiations between Israel and other countries in the Gulf make it very interesting for me to get into Israir as a tourism company,” the Russian-speaking Koen said through a translator. “I expect thousands and thousands of Israeli tourists that will come to Dubai, and the corona will not stop them.”<br/>

Malaysia’s AirAsia Group has approved and disbursed a 300m ringgit ($72m) loan from Sabah Development Bank Berhad to its units as part of the group’s fundraising efforts, the budget airline said in a bourse filing on Friday. The airline said the loan was not backed by a government guarantee, which the group has been seeking for a portion of the loans it hopes to secure. AirAsia has been looking to raise as much as 2.5b ringgit by the end of the year, 1.5b ringgit of which could be in bank loans. AirAsia said the loan was to fund specific development projects as agreed by the airline and the bank, including 170m ringgit to establish and operate a digital food supply chain and cold chain facilities in the state of Sabah. The rest will part-finance a project to turn the capital city airport into an international hub for AirAsia’s operations, enhance e-commerce platforms and marketability of Sabah products and promote tourism destinations on AirAsia’s platform.<br/>

Malaysia Airports Holdings (MAHB) is claiming against AirAsia X 78.2m ringgit ($19m) in unpaid aeronautical charges. The operator group’s wholly owned subsidiary Malaysia Airports (Sepang) has filed a writ of summons and statement of claim in the Kuala Lumpur High court on 22 October, it says in a same-day disclosure to Bursa Malaysia. The sum relates to the use of Kuala Lumpur International airport, which Malaysia Airports (Sepang) manages, along with second terminal KLIA2. MAHB says these charges comprise passenger service charges, passenger service security charges, aerobridge charges, aircraft parking charges, check-in counter charges, landing charges, and late payment charges. The operator is also looking to temporarily retain AirAsia X’s assets that are at its facilities, until the claim amount is settled in full. “As part of the civil suit, the plaintiff is also seeking an order that the plaintiff’s contractual and continual lien over the defendant’s user properties under the conditions of use shall only be discharged upon full settlement by the defendant of the full sum owing to the plaintiff.” AirAsia has yet to release a statement and declines to comment on the lawsuit.<br/>

Flag-carrier IranAir is resuming its European flights which had been suspended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, an airline spokesman told the state news agency IRNA on Friday. Scheduled flights to England, France, Austria, Germany, and Italy are among flights being resumed, Hossein Jahani told IRNA. “IranAir now has about seven scheduled European routes,” he said. Iran’s health ministry on Friday reported a record 6,134 new coronavirus cases for the previous 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 556,891 in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country.<br/>

At a time most airlines are shedding jobs, there is one that’s hiring -- a new low-cost carrier called Zipair Tokyo. The unit of JAL will take on around 100 employees from the broader JAL group as it launches passenger flights between Tokyo and cities including Bangkok and Seoul, a JAL spokesman said Friday. The budget airline started passenger flights last week after a delay of about five months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its first service, from Tokyo to Seoul, wasn’t exactly crowded, with only two travelers aboard, according to local media reports. Zipair, which started cargo-only flights in June, plans to add two Boeing 787 jets in fiscal 2021, the spokesman said. The new employees it’s hiring will be mainly flight attendants, but will also conduct ground operations, including customer-service functions. Zipair also plans to hire some pilots from outside the group. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost in the aviation industry as Covid-19 decimates air travel. However, Japan Airlines looks to be sticking to the philosophy of its former chairman, Kazuo Inamori, of protecting jobs at all costs. The carrier hasn’t cut any positions or furloughed workers, according to the spokesman, instead preferring to swap employees around from overstaffed units.<br/>

Hong Kong Airlines, the city’s third-largest carrier, is cautious about expanding after the closure of hometown rival Cathay Dragon, according to a company executive, with the focus still on its own survival amid the Covid-19 pandemic. A member of the cash-strapped Chinese aviation conglomerate HNA Group, the airline also said it was unable to hire any of the estimated 2,500 Dragon cabin and cockpit crew made redundant on Wednesday. The aviation landscape was rocked after Hong Kong’s largest carrier Cathay Pacific shut down its smaller sister airline Cathay Dragon, as part of a sweeping overhaul leading to 5,900 jobs axed worldwide. Dragon served 51 regional destinations and mainland China, with the routes to become available for bidding from other airlines. Cathay Pacific, along with its other subsidiary HK Express, has said it was eyeing most of the routes. Hong Kong Airlines is also seen as likely to benefit. Ricky Chong Wai-ki, director of corporate governance and development at Hong Kong Airlines, said: “If there are available slots and traffic rights, of course it would be an opportunity to other airlines, but we need to see the situation and also make an evaluation afterwards. Even if they reallocate the traffic rights, no matter to whom – Cathay Pacific or us – it’s still hard to well utilise, or fully utilise [the routes] under the situation of the pandemic.” <br/>

Russian carrier Red Wings is aiming to build a regional hub at Ekaterinburg’s Koltsovo airport using a fleet of Sukhoi Superjet 100s. Moscow-based Red Wings leased a Superjet from GTLK on 2 September, and another pair in the first few days of October. It says the aircraft are being used for a “large-scale project” to connect Ekaterinburg to other domestic regions, enabling passengers to fly from Siberia and the Urals to central and southern Russia. Since commencing the regional flights in mid-September, the airline has introduced services to nine cities, among them Nizhny Novgorod, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Makhachkala and Volgograd. Six of the nine routes have no competitors, the carrier says. Red Wings has configured the Superjets with 100 seats in an all-economy layout. “This project is based on a win-win principle,” says Red Wings general director Evgeny Klyucharev. “It is an investment in the future restoration of demand for Russian air transport.” GTLK deputy director general Anton Korolev says the aircraft are being leased for 20 years, the “first time” such a long lease period has been agreed in the Russian market.<br/>

Nine members of Virgin Australia’s board, including chairperson Elizabeth Bryan, have tendered or indicated their resignations, while the airline finalises a sale to Bain Capital. Bryan and five others – Trevor Bourne, Kenneth Dean, Allan Houston, Judith Swales, and Marvin Tan – have resigned as the company’s directors effective 20 October, the company said today in a disclosure to the Australian Securities Exchange. It adds that the company has yet to receive formal resignations from three other directors – Raymond Gammell, Hou Wei, and Kevin Xing. “Accordingly, so as to ensure that reconstitution of the board takes effect immediately, the deed administrators have exercised their powers to replace those directors who cease to hold office as a director on today’s date,” Virgin Australia states. The airline’s website indicates the company had 11 board members, including outgoing chief executive Paul Scurrah and non-executive director Warwick Negus.<br/>