A Muslim woman has alleged that a Southwest Airlines flight attendant forced her to move from her seat on the emergency exit row because she “couldn't speak English” and “would bring the whole plane down in an emergency”. The American-born, bilingual passenger, identified only as Fatima, is suing the airline for religious discrimination as a result. She was travelling from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Dallas, Texas on 22 May along with her sister after a visit to see their mother in hospital when the incident occurred. The pair spoke in Arabic as they boarded the plane and sat in their seats on the emergency exit row. A flight attendant allegedly told them to move, despite the sisters imploring her in English, which they both speak fluently. Fatima's lawyer, Marwa Elbially, claimed the member of cabin crew initially refused to reconsider, telling them, “It doesn't matter,” before declaring that Fatima’s sister, who was not wearing a hijab, could remain where she was but that Fatima, who was wearing one, should move. “The hardest part was keeping my composure for three hours after being insulted,” Fatima said. The Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is filing a lawsuit against the carrier on Fatima’s behalf.<br/>
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Bank lenders are seeking to cut their exposure to one of the world’s largest aircraft lessors before a moratorium on debt payment ends next month. An unnamed lender to a unit of Nordic Aviation Capital AS is seeking to sell a $50m portion of a credit facility this week, according to people familiar with the matter. The seller may dispose of the debt, which is secured by assets held in NAC Aviation 29 DAC, at roughly a 30% discount to face value, they said. A representative for Nordic Aviation declined to comment on the potential loan sale. Founded in Denmark in 1990, Nordic Aviation leases almost 500 aircrafts to about 75 airline customers and has about $5.9b of debt backed by different assets held in subsidiaries, a separate person familiar with the matter said. The company is seeking to draw a restructuring plan that will capitalize on an expected pick up in international travel. Sculptor Capital Management is one of the investment funds that have previously bought bank loans to Nordic Aviation, the people said. <br/>
Aer Lingus CE Lynne Embleton will face politicians later this month after a row stalled a meeting between the airline and an Oireachtas committee. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications Networks postponed a meeting with Aer Lingus corporate affairs chief Donal Moriarty on Wednesday, after members demanded that Embleton appear. The airline confirmed subsequently that its recently appointed chief executive would appear before the committee on a date both sides agree. That is thought likely to be later this month. Members want to quiz the airline on plans to close its Shannon Airport base, with the potential loss of 126 jobs, and temporarily lay off staff at Cork in the autumn, while work goes ahead on the runway there. Aer Lingus said the committee last week asked for Embleton or a representative to appear on Wednesday. The company nominated chief corporate affairs officer Moriarty as Embleton was not available. “The Aer Lingus representative was available to appear today as requested to discuss the substance of the issues of concern to the committee and had submitted an opening statement on these issues,” an airline statement said. “The committee has now informed Aer Lingus that it does not wish to hear from the nominated representative and has asked that the Aer Lingus chief executive officer appear.”<br/>
Wizz Air has warned it expects to lose money over the next year unless travel restrictions disappear rapidly in a sign of the threat to the aviation industry from the lingering effects of the pandemic. The low-cost carrier on Wednesday said restrictions had stayed in place “longer than anticipated”. It expects to fly 30% of its normal schedule between April and June. Unless there is “an accelerated and permanent lifting of restrictions”, Wizz forecasts a net loss for the 12 months to the end of March next year. After that, CE Jozsef Varadi expects to return to profit and operate a full schedule. “We are cautiously optimistic about the recovery of the business, which has started later than what we would have liked,” he said. “The outcome [of this financial year] could be in a wide range depending on restrictions,” and it could even end up “a great” year if flying restarts quickly, he added. <br/>
The coordination of travel rules in the EU has become a politicized process and the rules remain “unpredictable,” the CEO of Wizz Air said as the airline experiences “huge” demand for the summer. “I think the European Union as such has broken down completely, we have failed to come with unified measures and an orchestrated approach dealing with the situation and it has become incredibly over-politicized,” József Váradi, CEO of budget airline Wizz Air said Wednesday. European consumers are keen to get flying again and spend some time away this summer. However, there are concerns that constant changes to quarantine policies and the need to take Covid tests before and after the holiday might put some travelers off. In addition, France and Germany recently put restrictions on non-essential travel from the UK where a more transmissible variant of the coronavirus first discovered in India has spread. Some believe the move could have been somewhat politically motivated following acrimony over the supply of Covid vaccines. Váradi said that restrictions on UK travelers was an example of how travel rules had become politicized, noting that “if you look at the UK for example the country is very well vaccinated, better than the European so you guys should travel freely within the European Union.”<br/>
The CE of Wizz Air criticised European governments on Wednesday for barring flights over Belarus in response to the forced landing of a passenger plane, saying such moves made aviation “a toy of politics”. “I don’t think this is the right response,” Jozsef Varadi told Reuters as the low-cost carrier presented its full-year results. “I don’t think aviation should be used as a means for political sanctions.” Authorities including the EASA advised against overflying Belarus after the May 23 incident, in which a Ryanair Athens-Vilnius flight was diverted to Minsk and a travelling dissident journalist arrested. “Nothing has happened that would have jeopardised flight safety or security. I don’t think anyone was unsafe for a second,” Varadi said. “It’s a political measure. This is not a safety measure.” European airlines have cancelled services to Belarus and are skirting its airspace, leading to some cancelled Air France and Austrian Airlines Moscow flights as Russia warned of delayed clearance for alternative routes. The overflight ban has little impact on Wizz Air, its CEO said, because its Russia flights that could be affected are currently suspended anyway due to COVID-19 restrictions. The appropriate response to Belarus is up to politicians, he said, “but I don’t think they should be using our industry for that”.<br/>
Ryanair is doubling capacity to 1.3m seats a week in Europe, but not expanding in the Republic, as further evidence of air travel’s recovery emerges. The airline said last month that Covid-19 travel restrictions left it with an E815m loss in the 12 months ended March 31st, but predicted that passenger numbers could hit nine million in July, 60% of pre-pandemic levels. Ryanair confirmed reports on Tuesday that it has increased the number of aircraft seats across its network to 1.3m a week, double what it was offering in the final seven days of May. “Ryanair traffic across Europe is recovering strongly in all markets except Ireland where the defective hotel quarantine is deterring millions of vaccinated British and EU visitors travelling here in June, July and August,” the group said. Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary called on the Government several times last month to end its controversial quarantine rules, which require travellers from the US and several EU states to remain in hotels at their own expense for two weeks. News of Ryanair’s increase came as Bank of America said that the number of seats available from European airlines this summer could reach 80% of 2019 levels. Bank of America’s sky tracker calculated that in the week ended May 23rd, net seat sales on flights within Europe increased a percentage point over the previous seven days, to 32% of what they were during the same period in 2019. “They are now at the highest level since March 2020,” the bank noted. It said that daily website visits in the week ending May 25th were just 45% down on 2019 levels.<br/>
Shares in AirAsia’s long-haul unit jumped after the Malaysian airline said its investors had approved a restructuring plan that could pave the way for it to resume commercial operations when international borders reopen. AirAsia X’s stock closed 6.7% higher in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, a day after the airline said shareholders had approved resolutions regarding the restructuring with a margin of at least 99.8 per cent. The carrier called the development “a major milestone in the corporate restructuring process”. Saddled with RM63.5b ($15.4b) of debt, AirAsia X in October unveiled the restructuring plan as a last-ditch attempt to save its business and to cope with “severe liquidity constraints”. However, the plan could still hit turbulence with the company’s creditors. Like airlines around the world, AirAsia X and its parent have been pummelled by the closure of borders and restrictions on travel imposed due to Covid-19. AirAsia X’s deputy chair Lim Kian Onn said in October that the airline had run out of money and was liquidating its Indonesia business as well as writing down its 49% stake in Thai AirAsia X. In the same month, the carrier warned of “an imminent default of contractual commitments [that] will precipitate a potential liquidation of the airline” barring restructuring. Proposals authorised by shareholders on Tuesday include shrinking AirAsia X’s issued share capital by 99.9%; a rights issue of up to RM300m, and an issuance of new shares of up to RM200m via a special purpose vehicle.<br/>