unaligned

Canadians and Americans looking to fly across the border could have one more airline to choose from this fall, if coronavirus-related travel restrictions between the two countries are gone by then, as planned. Canadian budget carrier Flair Airlines said Thursday that on Oct. 31 it will begin flying to six U.S. leisure destinations, including Las Vegas; Fort Lauderdale and Orlando-Sanford in Florida; Phoenix-Mesa in Arizona; Hollywood-Burbank and Palm Springs in California. Flair executives suggest that their tiny airline can undercut big Canadian and American carriers on price. Swoop, a low-cost carrier owned by Canada's WestJet, is trying that approach too. "You don’t have to rack up debt or save for months to enjoy travel this winter,” Stephen Jones, president and CEO of Flair Airlines said. One-way fares will start between 79 to 109 Canadian dollars ($63 to $87). Flair officials said they will fly to the US from eight Canadian cities, including Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary, Ottowa, Kitchener-Waterloo and Abbotsford.<br/>The airline is led by a former executive of Hungary’s Wizz Air. It flew charters before converting to a mix of low fares and lots of fees, similar to US carriers Spirit and Allegiant. Flair tried flying to the US once before but ended that service in 2019.<br/>

A Mexican court has issued an arrest warrant on tax fraud charges for one of the founders of Mexican airline Interjet as the nation’s president targets an elite group that he calls corrupt. Miguel Aleman Magnani, 55, is accused of not paying 65m pesos ($3.3m) in taxes the airline collected from customers and employees but failed to forward to the government, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the charges haven’t been publicly announced. Further charges may be forthcoming, the person said. Two others familiar with the matter also confirmed that charges had been leveled against Aleman. The move is part of a widespread tax crackdown by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who says that Mexico’s richest have fleeced the nation for decades. It also a sharp change in his relationship with Aleman, who was an ally to the president at the start of his administration. Interjet declined to comment. <br/>

British airline and holiday company Jet2 said it continued to have limited visibility on the current summer travel season, after it sunk to a GBP374m loss in the year to the end of March due to the pandemic. Jet2, which sells package holidays and flights to European leisure destinations, said that its liquidity remained strong at GBP1.46b, despite losses arising from the crisis and the refunds it had to make when its aircraft were grounded. For the current financial year, the company said its performance would depend on the level of flying permitted over the rest of summer and in its winter period, over which it currently has limited visibility. That may have changed by later on Thursday. British transport minister Grant Shapps is expected to set out details of a plan to allow fully vaccinated Britons to return to England without quarantining, opening up travel for millions. read more Looking to next summer, Jet2 said it was optimistic that 2022 would be a "considerable improvement" on the previous two years, with bookings already showing a higher proportion of higher margin package holidays in the mix.<br/>

Flypop CE Nino Judge thinks this is a perfect moment to start an airline – particularly one with a distinct “low-cost, long haul” model, and serving a market set to “surge” as the pandemic retreats. Flypop – which will connect London’s Stansted airport with secondary Indian cities using leased, single-class Airbus A330s – is in the final stages of attaining its UK air operator’s certificate. He plans to launch services – initially to Amritsar, Ahmedabad and possibly Goa – immediately restrictions on air travel between the UK and India are lifted, possibly as early as October, he believes. “As soon as India is green-lit, we will be ready,” he says, referring to the UK’s traffic light system of rules for international travel. “It’s a great time to be doing this.” After months of tight restrictions on flying between the two countries, there will be a “surge of demand”, mainly from the VFR (visiting friends and relatives) segment, he maintains. Flypop has two unique features, says Judge, who is appearing on a panel entitled “The roadmap to returning to the skies – the future of air travel” at Farnborough International Airshow Connect on 14 July.<br/>