Avelo Airlines, a new US startup passenger carrier, has completed its inaugural flight from Burbank, in the Los Angeles suburbs, to Santa Rosa, north of the San Francisco Bay Area. The flight, XP101, operated on a Boeing 737-800, left Hollywood-Burbank airport at 10:39am local time and took 1h 3min, according to flight tracking website Flightaware.com. The airline will fly a return revenue flight to Burbank later in the day. ”Today …. we’re embarking on a new era of choice, convenience and everyday low fares,” says Avelo founder and CE Andrew Levy. “Avelo was created to inspire travel by making it easier and more affordable to reconnect with family, celebrate with friends and explore new places.” Avelo Airlines, which launched on 8 April, is the first of two new domestic airlines expected to enter the US market this year. The other is Breeze Airways, which is rumoured to begin selling tickets in the coming days. Houston-headquartered Avelo, a project led by ex-United Airlines CFO Levy, is backed by $125m in private equity and is launching operations with a fleet of three Boeing 737-800s. Levy hopes to expand to at least six aircraft by year-end. The cabins have high-density, 189-seat configurations.<br/>
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Mango Airlines, the low cost arm of state-owned South African Airways, was cleared to resume flying after resolving a dispute with the country’s airports operator over non-payment of fees. The carrier agreed with Airports Company South Africa to make a part-payment on what it owes and commit to ways to settle the remaining debt, according to a statement from ACSA on Wednesday. All Mango flights had been suspended earlier after it was blocked from using the nation’s airports, including the main hubs of Johannesburg and Cape Town. The grounding, while brief, was an indication of the deteriorating financial position at Mango, which has been hit by the coronavirus crisis that’s hammered the airline industry worldwide. South Africa’s government temporarily suspended air travel last year to contain the pandemic, starving Mango of revenue. Mango was considering a halt to operations from May 1 to go into business rescue while awaiting government funding, Business Day reported earlier this week. SAA was awarded a 10.5b rand ($735m) bailout in October, while a lengthy search for private investors in the carrier continues to prove fruitless.<br/>
SriLankan Airlines is rebuilding its passenger network in line with its cargo operations, after the carrier experienced a near-total collapse of its tourism sales last year as a result of Covid-19, CE Vipula Gunatilleka has disclosed. Whereas pre-pandemic the carrier brought around 30% of all tourists to Sri Lanka, it’s network is now based around long-haul freight routes to Australia and Europe, with an increased presence in Germany and the UK. “Being an island nation we found lots of opportunities as a cargo trade [destination]”, Gunatilleka told the Routes Reconnected online event on 28 April, explaining that the revenue stream is strong enough to justify the purchase of two dedicated freighter aircraft, adding: “We will start with one and add another in time to come.” Gunatilleka says the airline’s Indian network has seen a particularly large reduction in operations as Covid-19 rates have soared in the country. “Previously we had a lot of traffic coming from India, but our dependence on India has very much reduced”, he says, noting that its network has fallen from 10-11 destinations in the country to just a handful of flights per week.<br/>
High-end charter operator VistaJet has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2025 as it looks to set the standard for environmental performance in the sector. Noting that its target goes further and faster than the wider aviation industry’s goal of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, VistaJet hopes its example will be followed – or bettered – by others. “Ultimately this is about the industry lifting up its socks and doing the best it can,” says CCO Ian Moore. “I think our announcement shows what we feel needs to be the standard.” Initiatives adopted by the operator include offering customers the option of offsetting their carbon emissions, a partnership with SkyNRG to increase the uptake of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), reducing the number of empty legs flown and the introduction of the latest-technology aircraft. VistaJet has seen an impressive 80% take-up for its offsetting scheme, run in conjunction with environmental consultancy South Pole, far outstripping the rate seen in commercial aviation.<br/>