US low-cost airlines Frontier and Sun Country plan to raise cash through IPOs as they prepare for a rebound in pandemic-hit travel. Budget carriers are expected to bounce back quicker than larger rivals from the pandemic thanks to their lower-cost structures and focus on domestic leisure travel. Frontier Airlines, which withdrew listing plans in July, filed again on Monday, after Apollo Global Management-backed Sun Country Airlines launched an IPO to raise around $200m, regulatory filings show. In its IPO filing, Frontier said that it was “well positioned to take advantage of the anticipated demand recovery as vaccine distribution continues.” Meanwhile, Sun Country, which first announced its IPO last month, expects to list around 9m shares of its common stock at $21.00 to $23.00 per share.<br/>
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Following the lifting of the 737 Max’s grounding, Icelandair has resumed commercial flights using the Boeing narrowbody after a nearly two-year break. Icelandair says the airline carried out its first flight with a Max aircraft since March 2019 on a route from Reykjavik to the Danish capital Copenhagen. The Icelandic carrier was operating a fleet of four Max aircraft when the type was grounded.<br/>
Eurowings is now allowing passengers to reserve an empty middle seat on all of its flights. Announced Tuesday, the minimum price for this has been reduced by nearly 45%, which could make it an even more appealing “add-on” for the airline’s customers. 10 euros, or $12, seems like an amazing deal for an empty seat. “We have to acknowledge that in times of the Corona pandemic there are millions of insecure customers who now attach particular importance to a little more space on board when flying – whether for reasons of comfort or hygiene. With our improved option of offering the free middle seat for as little as 10 euros and making it conveniently bookable online, we are responding to these changing customer needs,” says Jens Bischof, CEO of Eurowings.<br/>
SpiceJet has said it will appeal against a ruling at the High Court of Justice in London, which ordered that De Havilland Aircraft of Canada be entitled to recover US$42.9m in damages from the airline and terminate a DHC-8-Q400 purchase agreement. The Canadian manufacturer sued the Indian low-cost carrier in a conflict stemming from a purchase agreement signed in September 2017 for 25 of the Bombardier Aerospace turboprops. The airline subsequently paid for and took delivery of five of them but halted pre-delivery payments for most of the remainder, according to De Havilland. The claim alleged that only US$7m in down payments were made on these remaining orders. SpiceJet argued in court that its payment obligations had been suspended by a change order the two companies signed in April 2019. This agreement’s suspension of scheduled delivery dates also meant suspended payment liability, it claimed. De Havilland argued that this was not the case. Story has more.<br/>
Qantas Airways’s budget arm Jetstar is flying 90% of its pre-pandemic domestic schedule in March amid a rebound in demand as state borders have reopened in Australia, Jetstar’s CE said Wednesday. “We are feeling certainly more positive than we have in 12 months,” Jetstar Group CEO Gareth Evans said. The low-cost airline in December had hoped to reach more than 110% of its pre-pandemic domestic schedule by this month, but that was downgraded because of state border closures amid COVID-19 case clusters.<br/>