The parent company of Porter Airlines has reached an agreement with the federal government for loans valued up to $270.5m, including $20.5m to refund passengers for flights cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Porter Aviation Holdings says it will use the money primarily as a capital reserve during the pandemic recovery period. The regional airline based at Toronto's island airport is the latest carrier to access loans through the government's Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corp. Loans are repayable within five years with the loan to refund passenger payable over seven years. All flights booked by Wednesday for travel as of Feb. 1, 2020, are immediately eligible for refunds. Online submissions will be accepted until Aug. 29 with refunds of the total purchase amount processed in the original form of payment. Customers can keep their existing travel credits and receive a 25 per cent credit bonus, depending on their method of booking. The credits are valid until Dec. 31, 2022, and are transferable. "All customers with pandemic-related flight cancellations now have the option of requesting a refund," stated CEO Michael Deluce.<br/>
unaligned
Airlines follow a pretty simple formula for success -- fill as many seats and fly as many hours as possible, and keep a young fleet. One Indian budget carrier is going another way to drum up income -- not flying. SpiceJet hasn’t flown any of its Boeing 737 Max jets for more than 27 months, after two deadly crashes operated by other airlines led to a global grounding. While most other major markets apart from China have cleared the Max to fly again, SpiceJet seems in no hurry to get it back in the air, and not just because there’s less demand to use the jet because of the pandemic. India’s second-biggest budget carrier booked other income of 12.3b rupees ($165m) in the eight quarters through March. That was the amount it expected to get in compensation from Boeing for not being able to fly its 13 Max aircraft, helping the company to trim its losses during deeply challenging times. SpiceJet is the only Indian airline that operates the Max. With firm orders for 142 more, it’s also one of its biggest customers globally. Yet the carrier hasn’t asked regulators to lift the flying ban in India, a person familiar with the matter said. There’s no clarity on why it has held back, and it would take at least a month after applying to get approvals in place, the person said. SpiceJet declined to comment. Boeing said it continues to work closely with aviation regulators in India and elsewhere about returning the Max to service, but doesn’t comment on talks with its customers.<br/>