Southwest said it would rescind plans to cut jobs and wages next year, now that new federal payroll support has been approved, averting what would have been the first worker layoffs in the carrier’s history. US airlines will receive $15b to pay workers as part of the package President Donald Trump signed into law Sunday. The measure funds employee wages through March 31. Southwest could receive $2b from the law, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated last week. The pandemic forced Southwest to take “actions that we’ve never even considered before in order to save our Company,” CEO Gary Kelly wrote in a memo to employees late Sunday. “Thankfully, as a result of this crucial aid, we can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that we will not be forced to follow through with those steps.” Airlines are grappling with the worst financial crisis in history as the pandemic continues to rage globally. Southwest had been seeking $500m in labor-cost savings, with the first of nearly 7,300 job cuts expected in January. Additional rounds were possible in March and April. The new federal aid will preclude job cuts for all of 2021, Kelly said. The Dallas-based airline remains overstaffed in “many areas,” he wrote, encouraging employees to use voluntary time-off programs when those are available.<br/>
unaligned
GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes has filed a complaint with the Brazilian free market regulator, alleging unfair market concentration resulting from the codeshare partnership between LATAM Airlines Brasil and Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras on five trunk routes, the daily Estadão has reported. The low-cost carrier claimed that by establishing a metal-neutral partnership on services from Belo Horizonte Tancredo Neves to Sao Paulo Guarulhos and Sao Paulo Congonhas, from Guarulhos to Porto Alegre, from Brasilia to Recife, and from Congonhas to Vitória Goiabeiras, the two rivals have acquired too much market power. GOL alleged that the cooperation harms it and its customers since the airline is the only remaining competitor on these routes. LATAM and Azul have a combined market share by capacity of 65.4% on the Belo Horizonte-Guarulhos route, 62% on the Belo Horizonte-Congonhas route, 55.2% on the Guarulhos-Porto Alegre route, and 60.6% on the Brasilia-Recife route. The Congonhas-Vitoria route is served only by GOL and LATAM, with the former having a 68.3% market share by capacity. Azul and LATAM announced a codeshare partnership covering 29 routes initially in June 2020. Both airlines said they were in contact with CADE regarding the implementation of the agreement.<br/>
Icelandair Group is selling a pair of Boeing 737 Max jets under a leaseback scheme, ahead their delivery next year. The two Max 9s are due to be introduced to the Icelandair fleet in the second quarter of 2021. Icelandair Group says it has entered an agreement with Sky Aero Management to sell the aircraft. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed but the lease period will be 12 years. Icelandair Group has already agreed the sale-and-leaseback, with BOC Aviation, of a single Max 8 which is also set to arrive in the second quarter. The three Max deliveries in 2021 will take the overall Icelandair fleet to nine of the type next year. It is intending to acquire 12 737 Max jets in total – comprising four Max 9s and eight Max 8s – with all 12 in service by the end of 2022.<br/>
All three bidders for the Israeli leisure airline Israir have submitted final offers for the carrier, with bondholders set to vote on the proposals on Tuesday. The three bidders – BGI Investments, Dor Alon Energy and YH Dimri – had been told to put forward final offers by Monday, after days of manoevring and squabbling as the suitors tweaked their proposals after the set deadlines. Israir’s sale trustee has detailed the competing bids. BGI has put forward an updated offer to purchase Israir for about 162m shekels ($50m) plus the waiver of a $5m loan. The investor YH Dimri is offering to acquire 83% of Israir for 140.4m shekels, while the other 17% would be held by the sale trustee in trust for the bondholders. Within 18 months of the transaction Israir shares will be listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange. Dor Alon has submitted a proposal as a “precautionary” measure, it says, in case an appeal it filed on a court decision earlier in the bidding process earlier in the bidding process is not accepted.<br/>
Burundi will relaunch a state-owned airline next year, more than a decade after the failure of its erstwhile carrier, Air Burundi. The state will hold a 92% stake in Burundi Airlines, which will be the latest carrier to enter East African skies after the introduction of Uganda Airlines and the revamping of Air Tanzania. A Belgian company will take a 4% stake and the rest will belong to state-owned insurer Societe d’Assurances du Burundi, or Socabu, according to a cabinet statement. The airline will be formed through the merger of Sobugea, an agency that runs the country’s airports, and Air Burundi, which has not operated a plane since 2009.<br/>
Vietravel Airlines will commence scheduled flight operations in early 2021 after it completed its certification procedures with the Vietnamese government on December 24, Vu Duc Bien, the General Director of Vietravel Airlines, has said. The start-up said it had now officially received its Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) along with operator's licence and route authorities. As such, its first commercial flight took place on December 26 with a one-off Hanoi-Hue Phu Bai Int'l-Ho Chi Minh City service. Ticket sales for its first scheduled flight, set for January 1, 2021, will open this week, Vu added without disclosing which routes will go on offer. Vietravel Airlines' fleet currently consists of a single A321-200 although two more are now expected in-country by mid-January 2021.<br/>
The CEO of the now-defunct regional airline Cathay Dragon will take the top job at Greater Bay Airlines, in a coup for the upstart carrier. Algernon Yau Ying-wah, 62, will start his new CEO role on January 4, next Monday, according to an internal GBA memo seen by the Post and confirmed by multiple industry insiders, after formally retiring this week from his current post with Cathay Group after almost four decades with the company. In the memo, Hong Kong mogul Bill Wong Cho-bau, who is launching the fledging GBA airline in the city, asked staff to welcome Yau and support him in his new appointment. The appointment will bolster GBA as it works through regulatory approval for its launch, including securing an air operator’s certificate and an air transport licence to permit it to run scheduled flights from Hong Kong to any destination.<br/>
New Caledonian carrier Aircalin has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320neo. The aircraft is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW1000 turbofans and has 168 seats in a single class layout, says Airbus. The airframer says that the type will allow Aircalin to open new Pacific routes. “With its new fleet the airline benefits from the lowest operating costs in the respective size categories, as well as the unique commonality between variants of the Airbus Family,” says Airbus. Cirium fleets data shows that Aircalin operates a total of six aircraft: two A330neos, one A320neo, two A320s and one Viking Air Twin Otter. Five aircraft are in service, with a single A320 in storage. The airline has an order for one additional A320neo.<br/>
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has informed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) that a ban on its operations to Europe has been extended for three months, and will not be reviewed until a safety audit of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)’s licensing procedures has been completed. The national flag carrier had recently sought an easing of restrictions, including provisional permission to operate flights to and from European destinations, after meeting several—but not all—safety conditions required of airlines by EASA. In response, EASA said that it could not allow PIA to resume its operations until confidence had been restored in the oversight activities of the CAA.<br/>
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a ... Jigglypuff? Some Pokémon-themed airplanes are starting to appear in the skies in Japan. Solaseed Airlines, a local carrier based on the Japanese island of Kyushu, debuted a Pokémon-painted plane on December 19. Its maiden flight was from Miyazaki City to Tokyo's Haneda airport. The plane is part of a tourism collaboration between The Pokémon Company (which owns and licenses the characters) and various regions of Japan. Miyazaki, on the eastern coast of Kyushu, is the eighth prefecture to join the partnership. Each prefecture is assigned a dedicated Pokémon of its own. Miyazaki's is Exeggutor, chosen because he resembles the phoenix palm tree that is native to the area, while the northern island of Hokkaido has the Alolan Vulpix (suited to cold weather, which is fitting for the snowy prefecture) and Fukushima is represented by pink-colored Chansey, who has powers of healing. And it isn't only the plane's exterior that features Exeggutor. On board, the seats have Exeggutor head rests, and some passengers got special Exeggutor swag like pens and stickers.<br/>