Virgin Atlantic has cancelled the launch of services between Manchester airport and the Indian cities of Delhi and Mumbai. “We are continuously reviewing our flying programme and in response to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 we have made the difficult decision to withdraw our Manchester to Delhi and Mumbai services, which were due to launch in January,” the airline states. The routes were only announced in mid-October, with Mumbai initially due to launch in December this year and Delhi in January 2021, using Boeing 787-9s. The Mumbai service was later pushed back to January. Virgin says it “remains committed to our Manchester home and have recently resumed operations to Barbados, with further routes to the Caribbean and US commencing in the coming weeks”.<br/>
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Emirates will resume daily flights to Istanbul from December 21, bringing the total number of destinations now served by the Dubai airline to 99. The addition of Istanbul expands Emirates’ European network to 31 destinations. The flight EK 121 will depart Dubai at 14:20 hours and arrive in Istanbul at 16:20 hrs. The return flight, EK 122, will depart Istanbul at 20:05 hours and be in Dubai at 01:20 hours. Flights to and from Istanbul will operate once daily on a Boeing 777 300ER. Emirates has partnered with Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) on a promotion to offer complementary stays at JW Marriott to all Emirates customers visiting Dubai from December 6 until February 28, 2021.<br/>
Malaysia’s AirAsia X Bhd said on Monday it proposed raising 500m ringgit ($123m) through a rights issue to existing shareholders and a share subscription for new investors. The airline said it intends to raise up to 300m ringgit in its rights issue. It also proposed issuing and allotting new shares through subscription by a special purpose vehicle, of up to 200m ringgit shares, and an option for the vehicle to subscribe for additional 15% of the enlarged total number of AAX shares. The fundraising will be undertaken after the completion of a debt restructuring scheme proposed in October, that its creditors will have to approve. “Shareholders funds after the capital reduction remains negative but the consolidation of shares post-capital reduction will provide a platform to seek fresh funding from existing shareholders,” the airline said. <br/>
Azorean carrier SATA Air Acores is facing the prospect of substantial restructuring after European regulators declared that a previous government’s capital injections to the company amounted to illegal state aid. The Portuguese archipelago’s secretary for finance, Joaquim Bastos e Silva, has disclosed during a legislative assembly that nearly E73m in support – put in place during 2017-20 – breached EU rules, because prior approval was not obtained. “SATA must return this huge amount to the [regional community] and this has to be done before any negotiations about urgent restructuring,” he says. The EC had approved, in August, an urgent rescue package for SATA including E133m in liquidity support. But it simultaneously warned that it was investigating the previous capital injections provided to the airline.<br/>
The EC has approved E136.9m in state aid for French leisure carrier Corsair, paving the way for the struggling airline’s sale. The support is split between E106.7m of restructuring aid and E30.2m in government compensation for the impact of coronavirus. The majority of the former will be delivered via loans, although around E27m comes from tax deferrals and credits. The aid is part of a E300m restructuring of the airline announced in late November, under which shareholders Intro Aviation and TUI Group will sell their interests to a consortium led by Eric Kourry and Patrick Vial-Collet. The consortium – which features other stakeholders from the tourism and hotel sectors in the French overseas territories – will take a 100% stake in the carrier once local court approval for the restructuring is received. Corsair expects that milestone to be reached by the end of this year. Kourry would bring airline industry experience to Corsair as the chairman of Guyane Aero Invest, which is the holding company of Guadeloupe-based Air Antilles and French Guiana-based Air Guyane, while Vial-collet is a hotelier and president of the Chamber of Commerce of Guadeloupe.<br/>
Jetstar said it will operate a record number of flights in Australia early next year as demand rebounds to higher than pre-pandemic levels. With fewer than 50 active Covid-19 cases, Australia is experiencing a domestic holiday boom as internal travel restrictions ease. The scale of the recovery suggests air passenger traffic, which has been smashed globally by the crisis, can quickly recover if the threat of infection subsides. Jetstar said Tuesday it plans an unprecedented 850 return flights a week on 55 routes by the end of March, more than 110% of its schedule before Covid-19. Airbus A320 planes that usually fly to Bali, Singapore and other overseas destinations will operate the extra services. Jetstar is stoking demand for flights from mid-January onward with a sale of 300,000 seats, some of them as cheap as A$29 ($22). Almost 90% of Australians plan to travel domestically in 2021, the airline said, citing its own survey of 1,500 people.<br/>