Aeroflot reported a Q4 net loss more than six times higher than the previous year amid coronavirus-related curbs on passenger traffic. Aeroflot reported a net loss of 43.80b roubles ($594m) for the final quarter of the year compared to 6.79b roubles a year earlier. Russia, like other countries, saw a sharp fall in passenger traffic last year because of coronavirus restrictions, followed by a gradual recovery in recent months. Its domestic traffic, however, was less affected as the country refrained from imposing a complete lockdown during a new wave of infections. Aeroflot’s passenger traffic in 2020 halved from pre-pandemic levels, though it was down as much as 90% in Q2. The company said on Wednesday it maintains a conservative approach to capacity deployment in addition to the seasonal winter decline.<br/>
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Czech Airlines creditors are being urged to submit claims within two months following the carrier’s filing for insolvency with a Prague court. The municipal court has ruled that an interim creditors’ committee be appointed with Czech Airlines Technics, the Czech bank Ceska Sporitelna, and the aviation general sales agent Air World Services among its members. Czech Airlines had proposed an interim committee when it filed its insolvency petition, in a bid to restructure the company, on 26 February. “[The company] justified the proposal by saying that it wanted to operate within the insolvency process as transparently as possible,” says the court in a 10 March decision. It states that establishment of an interim committee, ahead of a permanent one being created, is a “desirable” step and has instructed it to select a representative to act on its members’ behalf.<br/>
The rise of sustainability as a challenge for the airline industry has been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, to the point where business success is inexorably linked to carriers significantly reducing their environmental footprints, in the view of Air France CE Anne Rigail. “We need to be competitive to be sustainable, and if we are not sustainable, we will not have any customers any more in our aircraft,” Rigail states. “So both are totally linked.” Since 2019, sustainability has rocketed up the airline agenda, Rigail explains, amid rising expectations among the travelling public. And the imperative to address the issue is becoming “all the more acute” as living through a devastating global health crisis causes people to question the future impact of “ecological emergencies”. To meet this challenge, “we have to be very transparent on our environmental impact”, Rigail says. “Our duty is to reassure our customers that we are doing our utmost, with all the stakeholders… so that we can [offer] the most sustainable travel.”<br/>