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Net losses at airline Avianca Holdings increased 22% to $1.09b in 2020, due to the near-paralysis of global air travel because of COVID-19, the company said on Monday. The airline, which is carrying out a restructuring process under the U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy law, had losses of $894m in 2019. Operations contracted 74% year-on-year, the airline said in a filing to Colombia’s financial regulator, while operating income was down to $1.71b, from $4.62b in 2019. Keeping passenger planes grounded due to coronavirus meant Avianca reduced its costs to $2.3b in 2020 from $5.17b the year before. Passenger numbers fell 74% to 7.9m, the company said, and 33% of income was provided by $556m in earnings from its cargo business.<br/>

United says that during the month of May it will exceed its pre-pandemic schedule to Latin America, 15 months after cutting service to the region as passenger demand plummeted amid the first wave of the coronavirus. “In May, we will greatly expand our Latin America schedule, offering even more options than we did in 2019,” Patrick Quayle, United’s vice-president of international network and alliances, says on 29 March. The airline said last week that it was upping its international flying to 46% of its pre-covid schedule, resuming flights to Tokyo and European destinations that include Milan, Rome, Amsterdam, Munich and Tel Aviv. Mexico makes up the lion’s share of the carrier’s new Latin American flights, with non-stop service between 20 Mexican cities and Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco and Washington, DC. United will operate flights to 13 destinations in the Caribbean, and nine in central America. There will also be more flights to the South American continent, with the airline operating daily service between Sao Paulo and Houston as well as Newark, and 4-times weekly service from and to Chicago.<br/>

Korean Air has delayed its purchase of Asiana Airlines to 2024, a move which will make Korean Air become the world's seventh-largest airline. However, there are several obstacles in the way, including monopolization issues and the future operations of low-cost carriers ― Jin Air, Air Busan and Air Seoul ― the two large airlines currently operate. According to ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Rep. Park Yong-jin's office, Korean Air submitted a post-merger integration plan to Korea Development Bank, proposing to acquire Asiana by 2022 and fully merge by 2024. Korean Air initially planned to complete the merger by next year after injecting 1.5t won into Asiana Airlines in late June to acquire a 63.7% stake. Industry insiders say the delay comes as Korean Air struggles to obtain approval from eight antitrust authorities in countries serviced by the carrier. The documents were submitted in January, but only Turkey has approved the deal so far, while seven other countries, including Korea, the United States, China, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand have not given their approval.<br/>

ANA on Monday conducted Japan’s first trial of the CommonPass app indicating a traveler’s COVID-19 status at Tokyo’s Haneda airport as part of efforts by the global travel industry to make cross-border travel easier and safer. The app, one of a number of digital health passports being trialed around the world to allow airlines and authorities to expedite immigration procedures at airports, is backed by the World Economic Forum. It certifies both coronavirus test results and vaccination status. The Commons Project Foundation, the developer of CommonPass, said it aims to launch the digital platform in countries worldwide for “a more trustworthy model for validating the health status of incoming travelers” as virus test results are usually presented in the form of paper documentation with no global standard format. The app will not reveal any other underlying personal health information, according to ANA and the foundation. At Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, ANA officials checked a passenger’s smartphone to confirm negative virus test results at a check-in counter for a flight departing for New York. “As the process went smoothly, I had more time and energy to spare,” said Ikuko Osato, a 44-year-old nurse from Fukushima Prefecture who participated in the test run as a volunteer.<br/>

Embattled Thai Airways has disclosed that it expects to become profitable again from 2023 and return to positive equity by 2030. The carrier, which is undergoing business restructuring, disclosed this as part of guidelines it issued to address a potential delisting from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). SET guidelines state that a company risks delisting if it reports negative equity. Thai’s shareholder equity for the year ended 31 December 2020 fell to negative Bt129b ($4.14b), as the carrier, already in weak financial shape, was badly impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. The SET has stated that companies with negative equity should resolve possible grounds for delisting within three years. Given that Thai only expects to return to positive equity in 2030, it is likely to have missed the deadline. “In this case, it may result in the SET proposing the SET’s Board of Governors to consider possible delisting of Thai,” it discloses.<br/>

Air New Zealand Tuesday reported domestic business travel has returned to 90% of pre-pandemic levels, bucking a downward trend in many other countries with more severe COVID-19 outbreaks. Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty said the airline was “blown away” by the new data, noting it had initially hoped to return to 70% of pre-pandemic levels in 2022. “To recover to near normal levels this quickly really reinforces the strength of our domestic network and the desire of Kiwis to reconnect in person,” she said. The rebound is striking, given leading industry groups expect business travel globally to take years to recover after companies banned or severely restricted movements in an effort to protect staff and save on costs, turning instead to video-conferencing. The Global Business Travel Association earlier this month released a poll of companies from the United States, Europe and Latin America that 69% had suspended most or all domestic business travel, up 5 percentage points from February. In contrast, Air New Zealand has added more seats, more business-timed flights and brought on more crew to meet increased demand. It has also reduced its top fares, meaning customers booking at short notice will pay up to NZ$100 ($70)less per seat, the airline said.<br/>