Judge James L. Garrity of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved LATAM Airlines Group's request to extend the deadline for the lodging of a restructuring plan by a further five months i.e. until June 30, 2021. The Chilean holding filed the motion on January 12, saying that the added time would allow it to devise a plan acceptable to all parties concerned. It also argued that the previous deadline of January 29 "would disrupt the orderly administration of the Chapter 11 Cases and could create a risk that multiple, competing plans of reorganization are presented". A group of LATAM's bondholders sought to challenge the motion and asked the court to limit the extension to 120 days instead of the requested 152 days. The bondholders claimed that LATAM had not provided them with full access to its data - a charge the holding denied - although it did not explicitly link its accusations to the period of extension.<br/>
oneworld
Qantas could introduce ultra-long-haul flights under its delayed Project Sunrise programme as soon as 2024, according to the carrier’s CE Alan Joyce. “We still want to revisit it at the end of [2021], with the potential of doing it in [2024], probably, and onwards,” Joyce said Wednesday. Initial plans would have seen Qantas order up to 12 Airbus A350-1000s last year and launch direct services from Melbourne and Sydney to London and New York from 2023. The programme was “put on ice” amid the pandemic, Joyce says, but its launch might only be delayed by 12 months or so. “That’s the timeframe that we think we could get there,” he states regarding a 2024 launch, while reiterating that Qantas was previously ”literally weeks away” from ordering A350-1000s that would be adapted for flights of up to 21 hours. <br/>
Qantas is likely to fly its Airbus A380s again, according to its CE Alan Joyce, particularly on routes where tight scheduling is a factor. Speaking Wednesday, Joyce explained that while all 12 of the airline’s A380s “are sitting in the Mojave desert” – a reference to their storage at Victorville airport in California – and will remain grounded for at least three years, “we do think, if you look at the Qantas network, there are going to be opportunities to deploy those aircraft”. The carrier grounded all of its A380s by June last year as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic became apparent, leading to suggestions that it might follow carriers such as Air France in permanently removing the type from its future fleet plans. Joyce states, however, that Qantas will continue to have “scheduling windows” that are likely to make A380 operations viable when international services return. “If you’ve ever been in LA between 10pm and midnight, you see six or seven Qantas aircraft departing for Australia, because it’s the only time that works with curfews,” he says. “So, instead of flying multiple frequencies right on top of each other, an A380 that’s fully or nearly fully written down, if it generates cash, will absolutely work.”<br/>