unaligned

Mexican airline Interjet cancelled all of its 19 flights scheduled for Sunday as a local newspaper reported that it had failed to meet payments on jet fuel. Interjet announced the cancellations on its Twitter account and said the flights would be rescheduled starting Tuesday. It later issued a statement noting that the coronavirus pandemic had hit the industry hard and had hurt the company’s cash flow. “Additionally, some of the company’s aircraft have gone into maintenance, which has led to a restructuring of flight itineraries from this date,” Interjet said. Before the statement, newspaper Reforma quoted Mexican airport administration authority ASA as saying Interjet had not made advance payments on jet fuel for the second time since late September, and thus did not receive the fuel for its planes. <br/>

China Southern returned to profit in Q3, the largest mainland carrier said Friday evening. While major aviation players globally suffer from a sharp drop in air travel demand as the coronavirus pandemic prompts border restrictions, Chinese carriers are moving toward a recovery led by the country's vast domestic market. The Guangzhou-based airline recorded a net profit of Y711m ($106m) for the July-September period, the company's filing shows, down 70% on the year. Revenue dropped by 40% to Y26.38b, but cost savings that include lower fuel consumption and cheaper oil prices helped lift the bottom line. A stronger yuan against the greenback eased the burden as big-ticket expenses like aircraft and fuel are denominated in US dollars. Heavy losses in H1 2020 left China Southern with a net loss of Y7.46b for the first nine months, despite the airline's Q3 profit. The other two major state-owned carriers, Air China and China Eastern Airlines, were unable to reach a profit in Q3. Overall domestic traffic in the mainland was only 2% lower on the year in September. Stanley Hui Hon-chung, an industry veteran in Hong Kong, said recently that the recovery of passenger traffic in China was "amazing" and that domestic demand is virtually restored.<br/>

EasyJet is considering options to bolster its finances, and is not against state support to help the airline get through the coronavirus pandemic, chief executive Johan Lundgren said on Saturday. "We have a number of options of financing. We are reviewing that all the time," Lundgren said ahead of the opening of a new airport in the German capital. "I am not against state aid," he said. "It is very clear that the crisis has been to that extent that you can't expect the industry and its players to cope with it all by themselves." With travel across Europe at very low levels, most airlines are bleeding cash, but easyJet's finances have come under particular scrutiny amid media reports that it has signalled to the UK government it may need more financial support. The airline has warned it will make an annual loss of as much as GBP845m for the 12 months that ended in September. <br/>

Comair, the South African partner of BA, said it secured financing from banks, paving the way for the resumption of flights in December. The lenders, which weren’t identified, will provide the airline with new debt facilities and defer interest payments on existing debt, according to a company statement. Comair has also reached an agreement with labor unions, it said. Comair, which operates the low-cost Kulula brand, was put into a form of bankruptcy protection in May after South Africa banned non-essential travel to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The government has since cleared air travel, and domestic carriers including FlySafair and state-owned Mango are experiencing a pickup in demand.<br/>

Even as one Hong Kong airline disappears under the pressure of the coronavirus pandemic after 35 years of operations, another is rising to take its place. Greater Bay Airlines, which takes its name from Chinese President Xi Jinping's pet project to integrate Hong Kong and Macao with Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other cities in Guangdong Province, has started hiring staff and preparing paperwork and aircraft to be able to take to the skies by mid-2021. Embodying the Greater Bay Area notion, the airline is the brainchild of Chinese property tycoon Huang Chubiao, who owns Shenzhen-based carrier Donghai Airlines. "We know it comes at a time when aviation is facing this unprecedented crisis," said Stanley Hui Hong-chung, an industry veteran who is advising Huang. "(But) he is damn serious about this project." Hui previously served as CE of Dragonair, the airline later renamed Cathay Dragon, which Cathay Pacific Airways shut down abruptly on Oct. 21. He also has been CE of the Airport Authority of Hong Kong and is currently an independent board director at Air China, which in turn is a major shareholder of both Cathay Pacific and Shenzhen Airlines. Hui bases his optimism about the recovery of the local aviation market on his experience leading Dragonair through the SARS epidemic in 2003. "Demand dried up and it was very frightening," he said. "(But) the reality is, I think eventually these things will be overcome," he added, expressing faith in the emergence of effective vaccines and treatment for COVID-19 by next year.<br/>

Israeli flag-carrier El Al’s CE Gonen Usishkin is to step down from his position in January next year, three months after a board shake-up by the airline’s new controlling shareholder. Usishkin was named as the airline’s head in early 2018. He oversaw the transformation of El Al’s fleet, as it withdrew its Boeing 747-400s and 767-300ERs and replaced them with 787s. But El Al’s profits had sharply declined before Usishkin’s tenure, and the airline sank into net losses of $52m during his first year in charge – losses which deepened to $60m the following year. The onset of the pandemic and subsequent air transport crisis earlier this year pushed the struggling carrier into a serious crisis, and Usishkin has had to navigate a difficult course to give El Al a chance of rescue and survival. “An exact [date] has not yet been set,” it states. El Al has not named any potential successor to Usishkin.<br/>

Romanian low-cost carrier Blue Air is to switch its London flights to Heathrow from December and launch Frankfurt services next summer as it bids to challenge network carriers in their hubs. Blue AIr has served London Luton airport since 2012, but will begin Bucharest to Heathrow flights from the start of December. The airline will operate five weekly flights to Heathrow during the winter, rising to 11 services a week in the summer. Blue Air CCO Krassimir Tanev says: “[The] London Heathrow launch sets a new pivotal milestone in Blue Air’s network strategy and confirms our commitment to deliver best in class ultra-low cost airline experience to the benefit of our customers who could now have additional travel options at an affordable price. Heathrow is not only a preferred and most convenient option for London travelers, but also one of the most important intercontinental hubs for Europe. Blue Air intends to partner with several Heathrow carriers to enrich the connectivity for Romanian customers worldwide.” Blue Air is also advertising the launch of daily flights to Frankfurt from 28 March. The new routes will see Blue Air compete directly with Romanian flag carrier Tarom, as well as BA and Lufthansa respectively.<br/>

Liberia’s President George Weah relaunched the West African country’s national carrier on Friday with a single aircraft, thirty years after the collapse of the previous national airline. Weah said the new carrier - called Lone Star Air - was aimed at confirming Liberia was open for business, after the country gradually emerged from the 1989 to 2003 civil war that destroyed much of its infrastructure. The relaunch comes at a time when national airlines in the region are struggling with heavy debt, tough competition from international carriers, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic that has brought tourism to a near standstill. The African Union said in July that countries in the continent lost almost $55 billion in travel and tourism revenues in the first three months of the pandemic, and that some airlines would not survive the outbreak. “Just because COVID is around does not mean we should put our developmental goals ...on hold,” said Eugene Fahghon, Liberia’s deputy information minister. He said that the airline will focus on connecting the West Africa sub-region, flying to 11 destinations. <br/>