Indonesian authorities said on Thursday the search for victims of a plane crash that killed all 62 people on board had been halted, but the hunt would continue for the Sriwijaya Air jet’s cockpit voice recorder (CVR). “Search operations have been closed, but we will continue to search for the CVR,” said Bagus Puruhito, who heads the country’s search and rescue agency. He told reporters that the rescue team had collected more than 324 bags of body parts and plane parts. Flight SJ 182 crashed into the Java Sea on Jan. 9 four minutes after take-off from Jakarta. Divers last week retrieved from the seabed the other so-called black box, the flight data recorder, of the 26-year-old Boeing Co 737-500 jet.<br/>
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Southwest said Thursday it would vaccinate its employees against COVID-19 for free once a vaccine has been made widely available in the United States. The airline said its employees were strongly encouraged to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “We have teams working to identify third parties who can provide vaccines to our employees as soon as they are able to do so – likely during later phases in the vaccine roll-out plan,” the US carrier said. The vaccines are paid for by the federal government and the administrative fees will be covered for Southwest employees under its health plans, the company said.<br/>
Norway's government is backing a new rescue plan for low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle to escape bankruptcy, in a change from the stance in October that pushed the carrier to the brink of collapse. The centre-right coalition in Oslo said on Thursday morning that it was “positive” about Norwegian's plan to refocus on the Nordic region by ending low-cost long-haul flights, cut debt significantly, and raise fresh capital. The government will provide a hybrid loan to Norwegian provided the airline raises at least NKr4.5b ($530m) from institutional and strategic investors and completes its restructuring that should cut its debt in more than two. “The plan seems more robust than the one we said no to in October. That is why we are now positive towards contributing,” said Iselin Nybo, minister of trade and industry. The government's rejection of a second bailout of Norwegian in the autumn turned the carrier into the biggest casualty of the crisis roiling the aviation industry due to Covid-19, as it was forced to seek protection from creditors in Ireland and Norway. Norway stressed that it did not want to become a shareholder in Norwegian, but merely wanted to help the local aviation sector. <br/>
Nearly two years after being grounded following two deadly crashes, Boeing's 737 Max aircraft returned to Canadian airspace Thursday morning. WestJet flight 115 landed at Vancouver International Airport at 8:12 a.m. PT, carrying around 71 guests from Calgary, along with members of the crew. Passengers preparing to board the flight said they weren't overly concerned about travelling on the plane. "The return of WestJet's Max aircraft marks an operational milestone after 22 months of intense review and considerable learning," WestJet president and CEO Ed Sims said after the flight's arrival. "While of course this is a very different operating environment than any of us would wish due to COVID-19, we use today as a milestone to look forward to days ahead when all 30 of our Boeing Max 8 aircraft are once again connecting Canadians across the length and breadth of our wonderful country," Sims said.<br/>
Emirates will resume flights to Australia after working out how to meet tougher testing and quarantine requirements for foreign air crews, giving hope to thousands of citizens still stranded in Europe nearly a year after the Morrison government closed Australia's borders. The United Arab Emirates carrier blamed "the dynamic restrictions and requirements implemented by the different state authorities" for its decision last Friday to immediately suspend all flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Emirates is one of the few airlines still flying to Australia under the strict limits on the number of arrivals allowed in while the coronavirus pandemic rages abroad. Some states recently slashed the maximum intake by 50% over fears of new, more transmissible strains circulating in the United Kingdom and South Africa. New South Wales and Victoria also imposed new restrictions on foreign air crews. Crews and pilots made up 4808 of the 13,089 who entered Australia in the final two weeks of August. Emirates was conducting 19 flights a week between Dubai and Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and its decision to suspend the routes caused deep uncertainty for the thousands of Australians in Europe and the Middle East who have been waiting months to get home.<br/>
The budget carrier flydubai is re-launching services to Doha from January 26 with twice daily flights. It thus joins Air Arabia and Etihad Airways to have done so. "With today’s announcement we see the flydubai network grow to 64 destinations," said Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO at flydubai. Air Arabia relaunch daily services to Doha after three years on January 18. Etihad Airways will re-commence flights from Abu Dhabi to Doha starting February 15.<br/>
Reunion-based carrier Air Austral’s first Airbus A220-300 has rolled out of the paintshop sporting the airline’s distinctive livery. The airline ordered three of the twinjet type in October 2019. Airbus has shown off the first of the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G-powered aircraft to be painted, with a vertical fin illustrating a volcanic eruption. Reunion is a volcanically-active island, notably with the Piton de la Fournaise peak. Air Austral currently has an all-Boeing jet fleet comprising 777-300ER, 787-8 and 737-800 aircraft, plus a single ATR 72-500 turboprop.<br/>
AirAsia Group is looking to raise MYR454.5m ($113m) from a private placement of shares, to meet its cash needs over the next three to 12 months. The group is looking to sell over 668m shares, equivalent to 20% of 3.3b shares issued, at the tentative issue price of MYR0.68, which represents a 9% discount to the five-day volume-weighted average price of its shares, the group states in a Bursa Malaysia disclosure dated 21 January. AirAsia intends to use MYR146.6m within six to 12 months for settling fuel hedges, and allocates MYR135.6m to general working capital expenses over six months. Another MYR95.2m will go towards aircraft lease and maintenance payments, for use over three months, while AirAsia Digital is expected to need MYR77m within 12 months.<br/>