United was putting the finishing touches Monday to an airplane order potentially worth $30b at list values for up to 270 narrowbody jets in a bid to secure a pandemic recovery at favorable prices, industry sources said. The order could include up to 200 Boeing 737 MAX and some 70 Airbus A321neo which competes with the top end of the MAX family for single-aisle trips needing most range. Such a deal would notionally be worth $33b at the most recently published list prices, but analysts say airlines typically pay less than half price for deals of this size. None of the parties commented ahead of an announcement expected at a United investor event on Tuesday. Negotiations are complex and numbers of units can shift, the sources cautioned. The deal would be the industry’s biggest since the coronavirus pandemic pummelled air traffic and airline balance sheets, eclipsing recent orders for more than 100 MAX from Southwest.<br/>
star
United said on Monday it expects to generate positive adjusted pre-tax income in July, as bookings pick up as a result of rising COVID-19 vaccination rates. The carrier said July will be the first month with positive adjusted pre-tax income since January 2020, when the coronavirus crisis started hurting air travel.<br/>
Swiss will start introducing premium-economy seats on its Boeing 777 fleet during Q4 in an effort to diversify its product offering amid an increased focus on leisure traffic in the aftermath of the pandemic. The Lufthansa subsidiary says it will install 24 premium-economy seats on each of its 777-300ERs in a layout which also includes eight first, 62 business and 226 economy seats. Before the reconfiguration, Swiss’s 777-300ERs were fitted with 270 economy, 62 business and eight first-class seats – 20 seats more than in the new layout featuring premium economy – Cirium fleets data shows. “In introducing its new premium-economy class, Swiss is further strengthening its premium positioning in the growing leisure travel segment,” the carrier says. CE Dieter Vranckx states that Swiss is meeting “growing demand for more privacy, more comfort and more individuality”.<br/>
Air New Zealand is down by about 20 flights a day while the travel bubble is on hold, and the company plans to relocate its headquarters, CE Greg Foran says. Cabinet met on Monday and agreed to extend Wellington's alert level 2 status until 11.59pm Tuesday evening. The pause on quarantine-free travel was also extended to all of Australia, and will last for the same duration. Air NZ CE Greg Foran said that the 'hiccup' was causing plenty of disruption for customers and the airline. He said the airline had been doing about 30 flights a day but that had dropped back to about 10 a day. "We're still running a cargo business and in terms of the financial impact that's something that we'll just work through, it's a bit early to tell exactly what that's going to be until we get some sense of how long this is going to continue." He estimated flights across the Tasman made about 15 to 20% of the company's revenue. <br/>