JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said Tuesday he was optimistic that the deployment of coronavirus vaccines would help kick-start demand for air travel around the world, drawing on his experience with his own family. “Just before coming on this show, I just called my mother over in the U.K. She just had her Covid vaccination today,” Hayes said. “She’s already planning her trip to come see me and her grandkids in 2021. There are hundreds of millions of people like her all over the world,” he added, calling the Covid-19 vaccine “a game changer for everybody.” The airline industry has been one of the hardest hit during the pandemic, which delivered duel health and economic crises. While air travel has improved from its coronavirus-era low in the spring, traffic levels remain significantly below 2019 levels. On Monday, for example, 752,451 people went through TSA’s security checkpoints, compared with 2,250,386 on the same weekday last year, according to US government data. However, the start of Covid-19 vaccinations have offered hope of a more complete economic recovery in 2021, particularly in beleaguered sectors like travel and hospitality. For JetBlue, specifically, Hayes said he was confident in the company’s decision to begin offering trans-Atlantic flights to London in the coming months.<br/>
unaligned
Iran is not conducting its investigation into the downing of a civilian airliner in January properly and many questions remain unanswered, an independent Canadian report into the tragedy said on Tuesday. The 79-page document is the latest expression of frustration from Western nations into how the Islamic Republic is handling the aftermath of a disaster that claimed 176 lives. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they accidentally shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane shortly after take-off, mistaking it for a missile when tensions with the United States were high. Many of the victims were Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Former Canadian cabinet minister Ralph Goodale, charged with helping the victims’ families and examining how to deal with similar disasters in future, said “many of the key details of this horrific event” remain unknown. “Iran...has not conducted its investigations (safety, criminal or otherwise) in a truly independent, objective and transparent manner, and answers to critical questions” are absent, he wrote in the report. “There’s not much of a track record to base any optimism on so far,” Goodale said by phone when asked about the chances of Tehran carrying out a fully transparent investigation. Goodale said Iran needed to explain how it had assessed the risks to civilian aircraft, why it had left the airspace open and also why the Guards had decided to down the plane.<br/>
Shares in AirAsia’s long-haul unit fell as much as 9.5% Tuesday in response to a RM500m ($123m) rights and share issuance plan as the struggling Malaysian carrier tries to win creditor backing for a proposed debt restructuring. The tumble in AirAsia X’s stock came after the airline on Monday night proposed a rights issue of up to RM300m and an issuance of new shares via a special purpose vehicle of up to RM200m. The company said the plan was a “critical component” of the RM63.5b debt restructuring that is a last-ditch attempt to save its business. But the arrangement is subject to the approval of the Malaysian bourse and AirAsia X shareholders at an upcoming extraordinary general meeting. AirAsia X’s deputy chairman said in October that the carrier had run out of money and was liquidating its Indonesia business as well as writing down its 49% stake in Thai AirAsia X. That same month the airline, whose shares have fallen 39% this year, warned of “an imminent default of contractual commitments [that] will precipitate a potential liquidation of the airline” barring restructuring. On Monday, AirAsia X also said it was seeking to further shrink its issued share capital by 99.9% in response to “representations made by certain creditors”. It had previously proposed a reduction by 90%.<br/>
Lessor BOC Aviation Limited (BOCA) has asked a Malaysian court to dismiss AirAsia X’s debt restructuring scheme as it rules out a debt-to-equity swap and gives too much power to Airbus as a creditor, an affidavit filed by a top BOCA executive shows. AirAsia X has proposed to reconstitute $15.3b of debt into a principal amount of 200m ringgit ($48m) and have the rest waived. The airline, which has posted losses since June 2019, said the alternative was to face liquidation with no returns to creditors. It is now seeking court approval to convene a meeting with creditors to vote on the scheme. In an affidavit filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Nov. 26, BOCA COO David Walton said the restructuring was unfair as it writes off 99.7% of claims without offering creditors an equity stake. BOCA became one of Norwegian Air’s top shareholders in May after agreeing with other lessors to convert debt to equity. The airline sought bankruptcy protection last month after failing to get more state support.<br/>