Alaska Airlines has agreed to buy nearly two dozen additional Boeing 737 Max planes, the first order from a US carrier since regulators cleared the planes to fly again last month after two deadly crashes. Alaska said Tuesday it will buy 68 of the 737 Max 9 planes, up from the 32 it had previously ordered. Alaska will buy 23 of them from Boeing and lease 13 others from Air Lease. Alaska also announced options to buy 52 other Max planes. The FAA lifted its grounding order that was put in place after two nearly new Max jetliners crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing all 346 people aboard the flights. Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden declined to disclose terms of the deal but said that nine of the Max jetliners it is buying are so-called white tails, planes that have been built but don’t have an owner. The order by Alaska, which is based in Seattle, near Boeing’s Max production plant, will transition the carrier to a nearly all-Boeing fleet in coming years, a move Tilden says will save the company on maintenance and other costs, crucial as the carrier races to cut expenses due to depressed travel demand in the pandemic. Last week, Alaska forecast its December revenue and passenger traffic would be down as much as 70% from a year ago. “We said: What is it we can do to fundamentally and permanently take advantage of this crisis and improve the competitive position of Alaska?” said Tilden. “We said if we can largely get back to a single fleet, that would be in our interest.”<br/>
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EasyJet shares rose after the UK airline said it will defer the delivery of another 22 Airbus jets to conserve cash as the coronavirus crisis continues to depress travel demand. Europe’s second-largest discount carrier will postpone the handovers, which were due over a three-year period starting in October 2021, to the 2027-2028 period. The timing of 15 additional aircraft deliveries within fiscal 2022-2024 will be shifted to match seasonal needs, EasyJet said in a statement on Tuesday. The shares gained 2.4% at the close in London. With the new agreement, EasyJet will take no deliveries in fiscal 2021, helping it to rein in costs and ride out the pandemic after cutting jobs, closing bases and reporting its first annual loss in the year through September. The carrier had already deferred the delivery of 24 A320-family jets due over the next three years. EasyJet may need to raise more cash to weather the pandemic and hunker down until traffic returns, Daniel Roeska, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, wrote in a note to clients Dec. 20. The latest cause for alarm was triggered after a fast-spreading new strain of the virus forced a strict lockdown across England. <br/>
Ryanair has confirmed it will reopen its base at Shannon airport this summer and called on the Irish government to act to incentivise travel to secure at capacity at Cork and Dublin. The Irish carrier in October announced Shannon was one of six bases it was shutting over the winter as part of wider network cuts as demand was hit by increased travel restrictions. It has today confirmed plans to restore a base at Shannon from April 2021. Ryanair will base one aircraft operating 14 routes from the Irish airport. Cirium schedules data shows Ryanair served 18 destinations from Shannon in the summer of 2019. Ryanair CE Eddie Wilson says, ”The airport has worked tirelessly with Ryanair over the last number of months to secure capacity ahead of next summer and we’re delighted that this re-opening of the Ryanair base will restore Shannon’s connectivity.” Another Irish airport, Cork, was among the bases shut this winter and Wilson called on Irish transport minister Eamon Ryan to ”urgently introduce incentives” on airport charges to support passenger recovery at Cork and Dublin.<br/>
Passengers on a plane about to take off from New York’s LaGuardia airport were stunned when two fellow travelers suddenly opened an emergency exit and slid down to the tarmac, taking their dog with them. The bizarre incident resulted in a delay to the flight and the arrest of Antonio Murdock, 31, and Brianna Greco, 27, on charges including criminal mischief and trespassing. The couple boarded the plane but then switched seats several times as they became agitated. “As flight 462 began to taxi out to a runway, the man stood up, ignoring a flight attendant’s order to sit, saying that he had post-traumatic stress disorder,” the Times described a witness as saying. The plane then shuddered to a halt. “The man had forced open a cabin door, activating an emergency slide, and then he, his female companion and their dog slid their way out of the plane,” the paper reported. The exiting passengers were quickly taken into custody. Authorities said Murdock was awaiting arraignment while Greco was released on a desk appearance ticket. <br/>
The first Israel-Morocco direct commercial flight has landed in Rabat to mark the latest US-brokered normalisation deal between the two Middle Eastern nations. Israeli envoys arrived in Morocco on Tuesday to meet its king and hammer out the upgrade in ties in a parting foreign policy push by US President Donald Trump. Led by National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, the Israeli delegation was accompanied by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and architect of the pan-Arab rapprochement with Israel. They took El Al Israel Airlines in the first direct flight by a commercial plane from Tel Aviv to Rabat. Speaking at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport before his departure, Kushner stressed that the United Arab Emirates-Israel deal had already created commercial opportunities for both countries. “My hope is that this flight today to Morocco will create the same amount of momentum,” between Morocco and Israel, he said, before getting on the plane painted with the Hebrew, Arabic and English words for “peace”.<br/>
All three bidders battling to acquire Israeli leisure airline Israir will be given until 28 December to submit a best and final offer, a Tel Aviv district court has ruled. The sale of Israir by its parent IDB has been immersed in controversy after bidders were permitted to submit proposals after initial deadlines, after which other bidders were given the opportunity to improve their own offers. While bondholders strongly voted in favour of an offer by investment firm YH Dimri, the two competing companies – BGI Investments and Dor Alon Energy – have objected, complaining that loosened rules for the sales process have provided unfair advantages.<br/>
Airbus believes it may lose more than $5b of aircraft orders under struggling airline AirAsia X’s restructuring plans, according to court documents filed in Malaysia last week. Airbus Asia Pacific President Anand Stanley said in the court filing there’s a “strong possibility that Airbus will suffer substantial losses and prejudice” under the proposed restructuring plan for the Malaysian long-haul budget carrier. Those losses could extend to having to adjust production rates on the A330neo jetliner program, he said. Airbus has already built or substantially built seven A330neos for AirAsia X and there are a further 71 of the wide-bodies on order, according to the filing. AirAsia X has also failed to pay $301.2m in pre-delivery payments for its A330neo orders plus $2.5m on A321XLR narrow-body jets. An Airbus spokesman on Tuesday declined to comment on the details of the case and said discussions with AirAsia X are ongoing. AirAsia X is proposing a $15b restructuring of its debt and stock to prevent it from going under. The plan would see purchase commitments including Airbus orders eliminated, a worry for the European planemaker that’s struggled to pick up orders for the A330, currently producing only two aircraft a month.<br/>