United will repair and resume flying its Pratt & Whitney-powered Boeing 777-200 fleet that’s been grounded for two months since a dramatic engine failure showered debris across a suburban Denver neighborhood. United is working closely with Pratt & Whitney, a division of Raytheon Technologies Corp., as well as Boeing and the FAA on fan-blade inspections and looks forward “to getting that aircraft back to safe operations in the future,” Jonathan Roitman, United’s COO, said Tuesday on a call with analysts. He said it was “too premature” to detail a schedule on when the planes might return. Pratt officials have said they’ll boost capacity at a Connecticut blade-inspection site to help speed the work, which is likely to take well into the summer. Some of United’s 777-200s are among the first that Boeing manufactured, dating to 1995, which had sparked speculation about whether the carrier would pursue repairs or retire those jets, as some airlines in Asia have done. United took some 767-300 aircraft from storage to cover flying that the 777s had performed. Separately, Roitman said a solution to an electrical problem identified on 17 of its Boeing 737 Max aircraft is “relatively straightforward” once the airline receives a service bulletin on the repairs. United expects those planes will return to service by month’s end, CEO Kirby said.<br/>
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Juneyao Air was loss-making in 2020, much like its larger, state-owned compatriots, which have also saw their profitability punished by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. In its full-year results, the Shanghai-based airline swung to an operating loss of CNY749m ($115m). This compares to the CNY1.29b operating profit it reported in 2019. As with other carriers in the country, a collapse in passenger travel demand — particularly in the first half of the year — meant that revenue declines outpaced a reduced costs. Juneyao disclosed a near-40% year-on-year drop in revenue, at CNY10.1b. Costs, meanwhile, saw a 27% decline year on year, to CNY11.6b. The carrier reported a net loss of CNY474m, reversing 2019’s net profit of CNY994m. Juneyao had earlier forecast a full-year loss excluding non-recurring items for 2020 of CNY420-490m, with the projection increased to CNY580-660m with non-recurring items included. Despite swinging to a full-year loss, Juneyao says it is optimistic of domestic prospects, even though it was not of the same size as its larger competitors. <br/>