Ryanair Holdings CEO Michael O’Leary said the Irish carrier could almost double its passenger capacity through the rest of the summer as the European Union reopens for travel. Europe’s biggest discount airline expects to attract up to 9m passengers in July and August compared with 5m in June and just 1.7m in May, O’Leary said Thursday. “We’re seeing a very strong recovery in bookings, German leisure, Benelux leisure, Scandinavian leisure, heading to the beaches of Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy,” O’Leary said. “We expect that to continue into July and August, which should make for a reasonable recovery.” Demand has been spurred as the EU rolls out its Digital Covid Certificate from July 1, allowing travelers to move between member states provided they are fully vaccinated, have recovered from the virus or can show a negative test result. The reopening marks a step toward securing vital summer revenue after a series of false starts amid the spread of new viral variants. Still, only about 50% of available seats have been booked for July and 30% for August, compared with up to 70% normally, putting the focus on luring back passengers to maximize sales and leading fares to be cut, O’Leary said. The CEO said that the UK and Ireland are lagging behind the recovery in mainland Europe. Britain has been overly cautious in limiting movement in response to the Delta variant of the virus, he said, while predicting that more countries will be added to its quarantine-free “green list” from July 19. Allowing unfettered travel for vaccinated passengers, something currently under discussion in the UK, would spur “a very strong recovery” in demand and Ryanair would restore capacity to the country that’s been deployed elsewhere, he said, while cautioning that the EU could impose limits of its own.<br/>
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Cyprus Airways has been acquired by Malta’s SJC Group and has named George Mavrocostas as its new CE. Russia’s S7 Group had said in April that it was looking to sell its 36.9% stake in the airline. S7 secured the right in 2016 to use the trade name of Cyprus Airways, which ceased operations in 2015, to launch its own Cypriot start-up, Charlie Airlines. It said at the time that it would take about a 40% stake in the airline, the rest being held by local investors. In a 1 July statement, Cyprus Airways says that it has been acquired by SJC Group, which it describes as “a Maltese group with operations across Africa and the Middle-East, incorporating a number of different activities including helicopter commercial flight operations and maintenance from dedicated hangars within Malta International airport”. The Larnaca-based carrier says it has promoted chief operations officer George Mavrocostas to chief executive, and that he will be “at the forefront of a series of planned developments at the national airline brand designed to bring a competitive edge to the airline and to restore its Mediterranean heritage”.<br/>
The UAE and Israeli flag-carriers announced a codeshare cooperation deal on Thursday, the latest sign of deepening ties between the two nations following September's normalisation of diplomatic relations. The move follows Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's visit to the UAE this week to inaugurate the country's first Gulf embassy in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi. The airlines said they had "launched their joint codeshare network and reciprocal loyalty agreement for frequent flyers". "This builds on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the airlines signed in 2020 following the Abraham Accords signed by the UAE and Israel," it added. Under the agreement, El Al will sell tickets and offer frequent flier points to its members for the twice-weekly Etihad service between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv from July 18. Pending regulatory approval, Etihad will then begin to sell tickets for 14 routes operated by El Al as well as offering benefits to its frequent fliers.<br/>
Lenders to Jet Airways India only stand to receive about 5% of what they’re owed, another blow to banks in the nation that are growing increasingly accustomed to paltry recoveries. The new owners of Jet Airways -- Dubai-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital Management in London -- have proposed paying 3.8b rupees ($51m) of the 78.1b rupees they owe to financial creditors, according to a bankruptcy tribunal order tabled late Wednesday. Some 1.9b rupees will be paid upfront within six months while the rest will come from the proceeds of issuing zero-coupon bonds. The new owners have also offered the lenders a 9.5% stake in Jet Airways and a 7.5% interest in Jet Privilege, the carrier’s loyalty and rewards management company. India has one of the worst bad-debt ratios in the world and falling creditors’ recovery rates offer no respite to the nation’s financial system. Recoveries for financiers from resolved insolvency cases dropped to 39% of dues as of March from 46% a year earlier, Macquarie Capital data show. If the top nine cases by recovery are excluded, lenders received just 24% of dues.<br/>
The parent company of low-cost carrier Indonesia AirAsia widened its operating loss for Q1, amid a revenue plunge from the coronavirus pandemic. For the three months ended 31 March, AirAsia Indonesia reported an operating loss of Rp685b ($47m). This compares to the Rp353b operating loss it disclosed in 2020. The company saw its quarterly revenue plummet 83% year on year to Rp224b, outpacing a 46% drop in costs, which came in at Rp909b. As with other carriers in the region, passenger revenue was worst-hit, as travel restrictions put a halt on international travel, and dampened domestic travel demand. While costs fell amid reduced flying activity, the company saw an uptick in what it labelled “other operational expenses”, taking a hefty Rp215b charge in foreign exchange losses for the quarter. AirAsia Indonesia ended the quarter with slightly more cash and cash equivalents on hand, at Rp21.3b, compared to Rp18.7b when the year began. However, this was still a small fraction of the cash it had a year ago, when it ended the first quarter of 2020 with Rp134b. <br/>
Malaysian budget airline AirAsia Group said Thursday its fintech unit has bid for a digital banking license in the country as part of a consortium. BigPay, the unit, has partnered with Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Berhad - a unit of the country’s largest asset manager Permodalan Nasional Bhd - and private equity firm Ikhlas Capital. Singapore-based Ikhlas was founded by Nazir Razak, the former chairman of CIMB Group Holdings. The consortium also includes a foreign conglomerate with fintech expertise, AirAsia said. Citing sources, Reuters reported earlier on Thursday that AirAsia and its partners were among the bidders for up to five digital banking licences that the Malaysian central bank has said it will issue by early 2022. <br/>