Goldman Sachs Group Inc is in talks with JetBlue to take over its credit card program, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Goldman is competing against Barclays, which is the current issuer of JetBlue’s credit cards and is in talks with the low-cost airline to hold on to the deal, the report said. JetBlue’s contract with Barclays does not end for roughly another three years, and the airline may decide to stick with the British bank, according to the report.<br/>
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Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes on Thursday said it was revising downward its outlook for early 2021, suggesting the pandemic’s second wave in Brazil is having significant negative impact on the air travel market. While Gol had expected that Q1 revenue would come in at 2.4b reais ($429.72m), it is now forecast to only total 1.7b reais. The new revenue estimate represents just 52% of a pre-pandemic levels, down from two-thirds. Gol, Brazil’s largest airline, reported a modest profit of 16.8m reais ($3.01m) in Q4, which is part of Brazil’s high season. Still, Gol lost a total of 6b reais in 2020, in large part due to the pandemic that upended air travel. Gol’s less optimistic outlook is just the latest sign that Brazil’s second coronavirus wave, which just this week hit record highs for daily deaths and new infections, is negatively affecting the economy as health restrictions hamper travel demand. Gol said its March numbers were the most affected by the new wave and that it had had to reduce its flight schedule to 40% of pre-pandemic levels.<br/>
Azul founder David Neeleman anticipates the Brazilian airline’s cargo business will take off in the coming years thanks to booming growth of e-commerce in Latin America. “Forty percent year-over-year,” Neeleman says Wednesday, speaking of Azul’s cargo business. “It’s going to get bigger and bigger, and then you get economies of scale, and you just keep getting bigger and bigger as you can deliver to more and more [destinations].” The Sao-Paolo based airline, which last week reported a profit for the coronavirus-plagued fourth quarter of 2020, thinks its freight operation will help drive a post-pandemic recovery. While passenger revenue crawls back to normal levels, Azul’s Q4 cargo revenue jumped to R255m ($45.7m), up 66% from the same period in 2019. For the full year, its cargo revenue increased 31.8% over 2019 levels, to R705m. The carrier expects the sharp upward cargo trend will continue as it partners with e-commerce companies that are desperately searching for delivery solutions to far-flung cities across the vast country.<br/>
Canada’s tiny Flair Airlines, which made headlines by handing Boeing a crucial order for 737 MAX jets last week, is forging growth plans inspired by the austerity that transformed Hungary’s Wizz Air into one of Europe’s largest carriers. Former Wizz executive Stephen Jones, brought in from Europe to run Flair last year, said the Canadian company had grabbed planes at “a great price” to accelerate a relaunch based on the imported recipe of extreme cost discipline. “In many ways, the future of Flair will be a cookie-cutter of the success of Wizz,” the CEO said. One difference? Flair is basing its growth on Boeing jets whereas Wizz shot up the rankings to become one of Airbus’s biggest customers. In both cases, jet prices were key.<br/>
State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) has signed a financing agreement worth 11.2b riyal ($3b) to partially finance requirements for aircraft it has ordered, the state airline said Thursday. The amount covers the airline’s aircraft financing requirements until mid-2024, helping finance the purchases of 73 aircraft, previously ordered, it said in a statement. The agreements were signed with Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi British Bank (SABB), Arab National Bank (ANB), Samba, Bank AlJazira, and Bank Albilad, while HSBC Saudi advised on the deal, it said.<br/>
Norwegian Air’s shareholders voted in favour of the company’s debt restructuring plan on Thursday, business news website E24 reported. The vote was the first of several procedural hurdles the airline faces as it battles to survive the coronavirus pandemic which has decimated air travel. More than 99% of shareholders supported the so-called scheme of arrangement, E24 reported, which will be voted on separately by several groups of creditors on Thursday and Friday. Norwegian Air was not immediately available for comment.<br/>
Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways expects a market capitalization of about $2.7b at its planned listing no later than the third quarter as it anticipates a June or July easing of the government’s pandemic halt of international flights. The carrier, which began operations in 2019, plans to list 105 million shares on either the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange or Hanoi Stock Exchange, Chairman Trinh Van Quyet said. Bamboo Airways expects to set the initial price for its trading debut at 60,000 dong ($2.6) per share, he added. This marks the second attempt by the carrier to list its shares after scrapping the plan last year because of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The benchmark VN Index of Vietnamese stocks has rallied 8.8% this year to a near three-year high as the nation so far has mostly contained the domestic spread and started vaccinations this month. “The market condition is very favorable” for the share listing, Quyet said. Quyet anticipates the government will “cautiously” begin lifting its ban on most commercial international flights during the summer. He plans to start Bamboo Airways flights to the US in Q4, he said. The carrier last year received permission from the US DoT to operate direct flights between the US and Vietnam, he said.<br/>
When Stanley Choi became one of AirAsia Group’s biggest shareholders a month ago, he did so with no intention to pursue the aggressive tactics favored by activists in Europe and the US Instead, he saw an opportunity to create a buzz. Choi, a poker-playing Hong Kong financier, boosted his stake in the Malaysian budget carrier to almost 9% on Feb. 18 in a private placement at a cost of about $27 million. He hadn’t previously been looking to invest in the travel industry. “If I bet on Boeing or American Airlines, I probably wouldn’t be seen in any media,” 51-year old Choi said. “With this kind of size, no big airline would pay any attention.” The shares have surged more than 50% since his stake purchase was made public. Choi said he went into the investment without an exit strategy or an ideal return rate, and has yet to meet the two founders Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun in person. He bought the shares about seven months after the firm’s auditor Ernst & Young said the carrier’s ability to continue as a going concern may be in “significant doubt.” The statement triggered an 18% plunge in AirAsia’s shares on the day. Story has more.<br/>
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has weighed in on the ongoing feud between Regional Express and Qantas, noting, among other things, that competition “appears to be increasing, not decreasing”. The commission devoted a section — called “Rex alleges ‘predatory behaviour’ by Qantas” — in its quarterly report on domestic airline competition to address the matter. In detailing the industry developments in the September-December quarter, the ACCC notes Rex has made “public allegations” about the Australian flag carrier’s alleged “predatory behaviour” by entering routes that have historically been operated only by Rex. With international borders shut for most of the year, Qantas has doubled down on domestic and regional expansion. In recent months, the carrier has doubled down on expanding its regional network, as it looks to tap into pent-up domestic travel demand. Rex has been vocal in its objections to Qantas’ expansion into the regional market, stating on various occasions that certain routes, with low passenger numbers, cannot support more than one operator. <br/>