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Hundreds of Southwest flights were delayed or canceled again on Wednesday as the company sought to resolve disruptions from earlier in the week amid a pickup in summer travel. The headaches for Southwest, which is widely credited for pioneering the low-fare airline business model, began on Monday night, when a problem with a weather data supplier prevented the airline from safely flying planes. The issue was resolved within hours, but on Tuesday the airline suffered its own technological problems, resulting in half of its flights that day being delayed and many being canceled, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service. Spillover from that episode caused Wednesday’s problems, the airline said. About 10 percent of Southwest’s flights were canceled and another 19% were delayed by midafternoon, according to FlightAware. “While our technology issues from Tuesday have been resolved, we are still experiencing a small number of cancellations and delays across our network as we continue working to resume normal operations,” said Dan Landson, a Southwest spokesman. Southwest said Tuesday that it was having problems with “network connectivity.” Landson said that those troubles were unrelated to the weather data problems from Monday and that there was no indication the airline’s computer systems had been breached or hacked. The flight disruptions came at a critical time for a company celebrating its 50th year.<br/>

Aer Lingus has delayed the launch date of flights from Manchester to New York JFK and Orlando from late July until the end of September. The Irish carrier had planned to begin service on the two routes on 29 July but said Wednesday that it is postponing the launch until 30 September, due to “international borders opening later than expected”. Aer Lingus will begin its Manchester-Barbados service on 20 October, as originally planned. The IAG-owned carrier says it remains “fully committed” to beginning transatlantic services from Manchester. It also plans to launch flights from the northern UK city to Boston in summer 2022. Aer Lingus says it offering customers who had booked tickets a full refund, re-accommodation on an alternative service, or the option of a voucher with an additional 10% value, which can be used across its network over the next five years. The delay follows a decision by the UK government to put the USA on the amber list under its traffic-light system for reopening international travel to and from England. This means that non-essential travel to the USA is not advised, and travellers returning to England from US destinations must quarantine at home for 10 days. Most British nationals have been banned from entering the USA since 16 March 2020.<br/>

Central European low-cost carrier Wizz Air is continuing its expansion in Italy by launching an operation at Naples, the latest in a series of bases it has added in the country since the pandemic hit. Wizz will locate a pair of Airbus A321s in Naples and open 18 new routes, in addition the eight it already serves from the southern Italian city. It will open the base in August. The new routes include five domestic links, as well as predominantly leisure destinations in Europe and North Africa. Low-cost carriers already have a strong presence in Naples: EasyJet and Ryanair were the two biggest operators by seat capacity in August 2019, before the pandemic hit, followed by Volotea. Wizz has notably been stepping its operations in Italy since the crisis hit, a market in which low-cost carriers are already well established and where national carrier Alitalia remains in limbo while a revamped operation is established and the country’s second biggest operator, Air Italy, collapsed in early 2020.<br/>

Ryanair and the owner of three major airports are preparing to sue the government over the UK’s border policy. The low-cost airline and Manchester Airports Group say they will lodge High Court papers on Thursday to seek a judicial review over the transparency of the traffic-light system for international travel. The current framework allows only passengers returning from fewer than a dozen countries to avoid quarantine, and was recently tightened to remove Portugal, the only main tourist hub. The court papers will argue that the government should clearly explain how it makes decisions when categorising countries, given the “dramatic” impact these decisions have on the aviation industry. MAG owns Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports. “The current opaque way that decisions are being made is undermining consumer confidence in the traffic-light system and makes it impossible for airports, airlines and other travel companies to plan for the recovery of international travel or work with the government on future reviews,” the two companies said. The aviation industry broadly welcomed the traffic-light system but was disappointed that only a small number of countries were put on the “green list” last month. That disappointment turned to anger when Portugal was taken off the list this month, leaving holidaymakers’ plans in chaos and airlines ripping up their schedules. Passengers returning from countries on the green list do not have to quarantine when they arrive back in the UK. The travel industry also questioned why several countries and territories with low infection rates were not added to the green list.<br/>

Ryanair finally took possession of its first Boeing 737 MAX jet after a delay of more than two years on Wednesday, saying that it would have 12 of the ‘gamechanger’ aircraft in time for this year’s summer peak. The airline is the largest European customer for the jet, which was grounded for 20 months after two fatal crashes, with 210 firm orders of the 197-seat MAX200 model. Ryanair was initially due to take delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX two years ago "We are delighted to take delivery of our first new technology Gamechanger aircraft," Group CE Michael O'Leary said. The aircraft registered to Ryanair was expected to land on Wednesday afternoon in Dublin, after the airline took possession of it earlier in Seattle. Ryanair said it expected to take delivery of 12 Boeing 737-8200s this summer, with 6 delivered in Ryanair colours and 6 in Malta Air colours. It expects an additional 50 to be delivered before summer 2022. The airline has announced repeated delays to the arrival of the jet in its fleet, cutting its planned deliveries in time for use in summer 2021 from 40 to 16 to possibly zero. In May, Ryanair said it feared it would not take delivery of the first 737 MAX aircraft until after its peak summer period and that the airline was “quite upset with Boeing”. <br/>

The UN aviation agency said Wednesday it will release an interim report next week on the diversion of a Ryanair flight by Belarus that caused a global outcry. The UN ICAO last month launched a "fact-finding investigation" into the forced grounding of the Athens to Vilnius flight, which was carrying dissident Belarus journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, who were subsequently arrested after the plane landed. "An interim report will be presented to the ICAO Council by the end of its current session, on or near 23 June," the ICAO said. The Montreal-based agency said Belarus and Poland have provided some "preliminary details" for the ongoing probe, while the ICAO continues to seek information from Greece, Ireland, Lithuania and Switzerland. A final report is expected to be submitted to the ICAO Council -- a governing body made up of 36 member states -- in September. On May 23, Belarusian traffic controllers told Ryanair pilots to divert the plane, citing a bomb threat that proved to be false and scrambling a military jet to accompany the plane.<br/>

The parent company of Philippine Airlines' booked a record 73b pesos ($1.51b) loss in 2020, up seven fold from a year earlier, after the COVID-19 pandemic lashed the global aviation sector. In a disclosure, PAL Holdings Inc said it is in the final stages of putting together a debt restructuring plan for the flag carrier to help it through the crisis. Several other Southeast Asian airlines have already agreed restructuring plans or have sought approval for capital infusions and court-assisted debt relief. PAL Holdings said consolidated revenue at the airline fell 64% to 55.3b pesos last year due to travel restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. "Philippine Airlines will have a long way to go for recovery," the company said. It is working on the final stages of a restructuring plan, including court-assisted protection, to improve the capital structure and meet obligations, it said. PAL Holdings had around $6b in liabilities as of end-December.<br/>