Southwest, the first large US airline to return to making money after the pandemic crushed air travel, is swapping out one longtime executive at the top for another. After nearly two decades leading the airline, Gary C. Kelly, Southwest’s CE, will step down next year, the airline said Wednesday. He will be replaced by Robert E. Jordan, a top executive who has held a number of jobs at the company. Both men have worked for Southwest since the 1980s. Kelly, 66, has been in the top job since 2004, expanding Southwest into the nation’s largest airline by passengers carried, overseeing its acquisition of AirTran Airways, introducing international flights and guiding the company through the financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Jordan, 60, an executive vice president who oversees communication and outreach and human resources, will become CE on Feb. 1. Kelly will become executive chairman of the airline’s board and is expected to remain in that role at least through 2026. “The good thing is Southwest is promoting someone who knows the company, its culture, its strengths and its weaknesses,” said Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, a travel market research firm in San Francisco. “That’s really important.” “I think the timing is perfect,” Mr. Kelly said in an interview. “We’re just closing the books on celebrating 50 years last week and I like the imagery of kicking off the next 50 years with strong, fresh leadership.”<br/>
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Canada's eight-month forensic examination of the destruction of Flight PS752 shows that Canada does not have evidence of its own proving the catastrophe was "premeditated". CBC News has viewed a copy of a long-awaited unclassified report on the circumstances and causes of the aircraft's destruction. The analysis is based on all evidence and intelligence available to the Government of Canada, according to the former CSIS director leading the probe. "While the Forensic Team found no evidence that the downing of Flight PS752 was premeditated, this in no way absolves Iran of its responsibility for the death of 176 innocent people," says the report. The report says the team concluded Iran has "fallen short" of providing a "credible explanation of how and why" a branch of the country's military shot down the plane." "Given the totality of information available, the Forensic Team concludes that a series of acts and omissions by Iranian civil and military authorities caused a dangerous situation where previously identified risks were underestimated and not taken seriously," the report said. The report says the forensic team analyzed the information at its disposal but "only Iran has full access to the evidence, crash site, and witnesses.<br/>
WestJet will launch a new cargo service next year amid a surge in demand for reliable air freight. The Calgary-based airline announced Wednesday that it will convert Boeing 737-800 aircraft in its fleet for its dedicated cargo service. The first converted planes are expected to enter service by the second quarter of next year. The new service comes amid growing global demand for air cargo. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), global demand for cargo shipping was up 12 per cent in April compared to the same period in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic struck. WestJet says that the division will provide cargo customers "with increased reliability, flexibility and capacity." "WestJet Cargo will enhance economic benefits through competitive product for shippers as well as new employment opportunities," said Charles Duncan, WestJet's executive vice-president of cargo. <br/>
Icelandic airline Play launches its maiden flight this week, the latest newcomer betting on cheap planes and pent-up travel demand, undeterred by the near collapse of the region’s Norwegian Air. Even without a global pandemic, the competitive Nordic airline industry looks fraught with danger. SAS is still struggling to turn its business around, Wizz Air has scrapped its domestic routes in Norway, Wow collapsed in 2019 and Primera Air folded in 2018. Yet several newcomers are keen to step into the void once restrictions ease. They will operate routes from the Nordics to the rest of Europe and North America, hoping to take advantage of available slots and cheap planes and expecting demand to be strong. “It’s going to grow extremely quickly and, especially in the short and medium term, I think we will have huge demand,” said Birgir Jonsson, CEO of Play, which on Thursday will fly its first aircraft to London Stansted from Reykjavik. The region is attractive to airlines because its major cities are remote in relation to the rest of Europe and sparsely populated areas have few train lines. Iceland sits in the middle of the Atlantic while Norway stretches more than 2,200 km across fjords and mountains. Play plans to fly narrow-body Airbus A321 Neo aircraft, on lease on a flexible contract with AerCap, between Europe and North America, stopping in Iceland. Other new Nordic contenders are Flyr FLYR-ME.OL, with its maiden flight on June 30, and Norse Atlantic Airways NORSE-ME.OL, a transatlantic budget airline backed by Norwegian founder Bjoern Kjos starting in late 2021.<br/>
As the summer holiday season kicks off, the number of passengers hopping on Ryanair RYA.I planes is "mushrooming" despite travel restrictions in place to control the spread of the coronavirus, Group CE Michael O'Leary said Wednesday. O’Leary said bookings had recovered very strongly over the last eight weeks, with particularly high volumes of bookings to Portugal and other summer destinations from Germany, Scandinavia, and the Benelux countries. “Traffic is mushrooming and a lot of that folk are families going on summer holidays to the beaches of Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy,” O’Leary said, adding the airline was on track to fly 80 to 100m passengers by March 2022. That is up from 27.5m last year but still below pre-pandemic levels of 149 million. O’Leary said Ryanair carried 1.7m passengers in May and said the number was likely to increase to 5m in June and 9m the following month. To boost travel further, O’Leary said fully vaccinated holidaymakers across Europe should be allowed to travel freely.<br/>