Southwest is urging employees to pick up shifts by offering higher overtime pay in early July to help it avoid flight disruptions during what’s expected to be a surge in Independence Day weekend travel, according to internal company memos. The Dallas-based airline has had to cancel hundreds of flights and delay others this month due to a combination of bad weather and a technical problem. The push to staff up quickly shows how airlines are struggling to respond to a surge in air travel after a slump in demand during the coronavirus pandemic. US airlines accepted $54b in federal aid in exchange for not furloughing workers. But thousands of employees at Southwest and other airlines took buyouts or leaves of absence at the urging of company executives. “We have heard from many of you who are frustrated with our network reliability and irregular operations created by summer storms across many parts of the country,” Alan Kasher, Southwest’s executive VP of daily operations, wrote in staff note posted Monday, entitled “We Need Your Help This Holiday Travel Week.” “To address the situation for the short term, we will be incentivizing our Ops Employees during this busy holiday travel week by increasing overtime pay from July 1 through July 7,” he said. Southwest flight attendants will get double pay for picking up open shifts over that period, Sonya Lacore, Southwest’s vice president of inflight operations, wrote to in a separate memo to employees Monday. Southwest is also offering double pay to ground and cargo operations employees, spokesman Brian Parrish said.<br/>
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Allegiant Airlines is adding a new nonstop route from Wichita to Florida. KSNW reports that the airline announced Tuesday that flights from Eisenhower National Airport to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport will begin on Nov. 19, operating twice weekly. The company is offering introductory one-way fares for as low as $49. “This is such exciting news, especially now that people are traveling again,” said Valerie Wise, air service and marketing manager with Wichita Eisenhower National Airport. This will be Allegiant’s sixth destination from Wichita.<br/>
El Al is to seek shareholder approval for a share consolidation and an increase in the company’s authorised capital. El Al is to consolidate its 2.5b ordinary shares in a ratio of eight-to-one, bringing the figure down to 312.5m. The airline will reduce the nominal value of the shares to 1 shekel ($0.30). It then plans to increase the authorised capital by just over 2.187b shares. This will take its authorised capital back to 2.5b ordinary shares plus a single special government share. El Al is to convene a shareholders’ meeting on 20 July at its Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport offices to approve the plan. The issued stock of the company comprises over 1.35b shares. The airline, which has been under pressure to stabilise its finances, recently managed to meet all the conditions for a funding agreement with the Israeli government. Among the conditions was that El Al would commit to raising $105m in capital from shares or options.<br/>
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced plans on Tuesday to launch a second national airline as part of a broader strategy to turn the kingdom into a global logistics hub as it seeks to diversify from oil. The creation of another flag carrier would catapult Saudi Arabia into the 5th rank globally in terms of air transit traffic, official state media reported, without giving details on when and how the airline would be created. Prince Mohammad has been spearheading a push for Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy and the largest country in the Gulf geographically, to boost non-oil revenues to about 45b riyals ($12.00b) by 2030. Making the kingdom a global logistics hub, which includes the development of ports, rail and road networks, would increase the transport and logistics sector’s contribution to gross domestic product to 10% from 6%, state news agency SPA said. “The comprehensive strategy aims to position Saudi Arabia as a global logistics hub connecting the three continents,” Prince Mohammed was quoted as saying in the SPA report.<br/>
Go Airlines India’s plans to raise 36b rupees ($485m) via an IPO have been put on hold by India’s market regulator, dealing another blow to the debt-laden carrier whose business has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic. Go Airlines’ share sale documents will be “kept in abeyance,” the Securities and Exchange Board of India said in a filing late Monday, without specifying the reason why. A spokeswoman for Go Airlines said the company hasn’t received any communication from Sebi. That delay is sure to be damaging to Go Airlines, which was depending on the IPO proceeds to repay debt and dues to creditors including Indian Oil Corp. Go Airlines, a no-frills carrier controlled by the Wadia Group, is saddled with obligations that totaled around 81.6b rupees as of mid-April, according to its preliminary prospectus. Any recovery in air travel in India also looks to be postponed, with fears record vaccinations may not stop a deadly third wave. Indian carriers will need about $5b to survive but only have access to about $1.1b through share offerings and other means, according to the CAPA Centre for Aviation. IndiGo, India’s biggest carrier, and the nation’s flag carrier, Air India, will account for the bulk of the $8b in losses by 2022, CAPA said.<br/>
Australia’s Regional Express is looking to bring its fleet of Boeing 737-800s to 10 examples by the end of the year, as it continues to grow its mainline network. The announcement comes as Rex inked a letter of intent for two 737s, which will be delivered by August, taking its jet fleet to eight aircraft. The carrier also disclosed its intentions to lease another two 737s by the end of the year, and has invited expressions of interest from lessors for the two jets. The 737s are currently operating mainline domestic routes from Melbourne to Sydney, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Canberra, as well as from Sydney to Gold Coast. Rex has hinted that the new aircraft will be put on new routes to “other capital cities, large regional centres and popular leisure destinations”. The carrier launched jet operations in March, half a year after it secured financing and regulatory approvals to do so. Its foray into mainline domestic operations has sparked a price war on the highly-competitive Sydney-Melbourne route, and has led to long-standing war of words between the airline and arch-rival Qantas. <br/>