Alaska Airlines officially became the 14th member of the Oneworld aviation alliance on 31 March. The Seattle-based airline says its customers can now enjoy the full benefits of the global alliance, letting them seamlessly travel to 1,000 destinations in 170 countries. “It’s the best time to join an alliance”, says Alaska CE Ben Minicucci, calling the milestone a “pivotal moment” in the airline’s history. Oneworld CE Rob Gurney adds that as the industry rebuilds from the coronavirus crisis, alliances will become more valuable. “All of our member-airline CEOs have reaffirmed that partnerships are going to be even more crucial as we come out of Covid,” he says. “Most airlines going to be operating smaller fleets, so the ability to offer a global network is going to be dependent on partners like never before.” <br/>
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Flush with cash and optimistic for the future, US airlines have begun paying back some of the loans they received from the federal government through the CARES Act during the depths of the Covid-19 crisis. American Airlines went first with a rare debt prepayment press release declaring its $550m CARES Act loan repaid on March 24. Sun Country Airlines followed a day later announcing the prepayment of its own $45 million loan. “This prepayment is a shining example of the importance of the CARES Act,” American CEO Doug Parker said in a statement. “This important legislation … stabilized our industry and kept our workforce intact.” But the US Treasury Department did not just get taxpayers’ money back from American and Sun Country. A new analysis from Cowen & Co. shows the government made a roughly 21% annualized return on its loan and warrants to American — beating most major stock indices in returns over the past year.<br/>
British Airways has become the first airline to invest in hydrogen propulsion developer ZeroAvia, the first step in a journey that could see the flag carrier replace its whole short-haul fleet with zero-emission aircraft by 2050. Alongside a group of existing backers, including the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BA contributed to a total of $24.3m raised by the California-headquartered start-up. BA declines to say how much it provided for the Series A4 funding round, but the move is designed to allow ZeroAvia to advance the development of a fuel cell-based powertrain suitable for a 50-70-seat aircraft. Under the accelerated timetable, that aircraft could enter service in 2026, following in the footsteps of a 19-seater which is scheduled to arrive in 2024.<br/>
Royal Jordanian Airlines named Samer Majali as its CEO, bringing back an industry veteran who ran the carrier more than a decade ago. Majali, who is 63 and holds dual British and Jordanian citizenship, was appointed CEO and vice chairman as of March 30, the Amman-based company said Wednesday. Like carriers worldwide, Royal Jordanian has been hammered by lockdowns and travel curbs triggered by coronavirus crisis, posting a loss of 107m dinars ($151m) in the first nine months of 2020. Former CEO Stefan Pichler, who once ran Air Berlin, resigned at the end of September after three years in the post that saw him revive earnings prior to the pandemic. Majali last led Royal Jordanian between 2001 and 2009 after more than 10 years there in other roles. His tenure saw the airline become the first in the Middle East to join a global alliance after enlisting with Oneworld.<br/>