Azul on Thursday reported a net loss of 317.4m reais ($56.6m) in Q4, the carrier’s best performance since the pandemic upended air travel. Shares opened flat in Sao Paulo following the results. During the last quarter of 2020, Azul said it operated at domestic capacity that was 91% of its pre-pandemic capacity. But the airline will struggle to keep those high capacity numbers in the first quarter because of a crippling second coronavirus wave that is likely to further hamper travel. Just this week, Brazil reported record death numbers two days in a row, and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the country’s two largest cities, have mandated curfews. Despite the better results in Q4, the pandemic has deeply affected the company’s finances. While revenue doubled compared with Q3, reaching 1.8b reais, it stands at roughly half what Azul’s revenue was before the pandemic. The airline’s liquidity doubled to 3b reais in the same period, but that was mostly due to the issuance of new debt.<br/>
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Eleven years after Ryanair quit George Best Belfast City airport, Europe’s biggest budget airline is moving back with summer departures to holiday airports in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Ryanair will operate daily flights to Alicante, Malaga, Palma and Faro, with less frequent departures to Barcelona, Ibiza, Valencia and Milan. Services from the Northern Ireland airport, which is in the eastern outskirts of the city, begin on 1 June with departures to Alicante, Barcelona and Malaga. The full service is due to start in July. The schedule reflects expected lower demand in June; the Northern Ireland school summer holidays beginning on 1 July. There is also uncertainty about the trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic, and in particular what restrictions will apply to travellers outbound from Northern Ireland, on arrival in southern European nations and the quarantine position back in the UK.<br/>
Last year may have been the worst in the history of the global aviation industry but for Nicolas Maduro’s ragtag Venezuelan airline, business boomed. Conviasa, as the state-run airline is known, says that its operations jumped 85% in 2020, making it one of the few carriers in the world to post any growth after the pandemic wiped out air travel. The airline, which is banned from flying to the US as part of that country’s wide-ranging sanctions against the Maduro regime, now has regular flights to five countries. Three of them are led by Maduro’s political allies -- Bolivia, Iran and Mexico -- and there are plans to add a Moscow connection soon. Conviasa also now services high-demand routes to Panama and the Dominican Republic, which act as key transit hubs for Venezuelans. While airlines in the US and Europe have received billions of dollars in government bailouts to weather the coronavirus pandemic, Conviasa has gotten state support of a different kind. Competition has been quashed with permits delayed or last minute hurdles put up against carriers including Copa Holdings. The secret to its relative success isn’t hard to find. Keen on propping up state enterprises that can bring much needed hard currency revenue to a battered regime, President Maduro has allowed Conviasa to charge in dollars and at exorbitant rates for destinations such as Toluca, Mexico, or Viru Viru, Bolivia.<br/>
Thailand may lose its reputation as a regional aviation hub if the government cannot speed up reopening the country to tourism and strengthen the competitiveness of airlines, according to Thai AirAsia (TAA). "After facing the pandemic for a year, the key factors that can strengthen Thai tourism are reopening borders and financial aid such as soft loans to help airlines maintain their business and save jobs," said Santisuk Klongchaiya, CE of TAA. Seven local airlines including TAA have requested a 14b baht soft loan since March 2020. "If the plan to welcome foreigners is not ready, Thailand may lose those potential tourists to other competitors that have prepared to attract them with a practical scheme," he said. Santisuk said international airlines may shift their direct flights to other countries such as Vietnam instead of Thailand. TAA reported 16.2b baht in total revenue in 2020, down by 61% year-on-year, while the airline carried 9.49m passengers last year, drop by 57%. He said its passenger goal this year remains the same as last year -- 9.4m. Of that amount, 15% is the international market as the airline expects to resume international flights by Q4.<br/>
JetBlue Airways sees itself adding a business line that is different from flying planes — namely, travel technology. During a talk last week, JetBlue’s chief digital and technology officer Eash Sundaram outlined a plan for JetBlue to refashion itself as a tech company and lifestyle brand, too. “Selling an air ticket is, by far, what airlines focus on, but if we turn ourselves into a travel tech company, we’ll have a lot more products we can offer,” said Eash Sundaram, chief digital and technology officer. In 2020, JetBlue derived only 7.5% of its $2.95b in operating revenues from non-airline revenue. It’s still mainly an airline. Sundaram said JetBlue is looking at efforts to “future-proof” its business by diversifying beyond just flights. “We look at future-proofing JetBlue in two ways,” Sundaram said. “One is, ‘Do we have products that can sustain themselves through the course of the ups and downs of the airline industry?’… People look at us as a lifestyle brand and not just an airline now.” Rather than wholly originating software or hardware, JetBlue’s approach will mainly be to co-create solutions with partners’ help.<br/>