The new company of the Balearic Islands, a subsidiary of Swiftair, inaugurated its operations last Friday, July 16, connecting Ibiza, Menorca and Palma de Mallorca. On Thursday a presentation ceremony was held in Ibiza, with the presence of the President of the Insular Council, Vicente Marí, and the CEO of UEP! Fly, Javier Taibo, at the airport. The company is focused on connecting the Balearic Islands and its headquarters are in Palma de Mallorca, while the operational base is in Ibiza. The objective is to increase inter-island travel and in the future reach the Spanish peninsula once its operations have been strengthened. There is currently great competition between the islands with the presence of Iberia and Air Europa, which have 24 and 12 daily flights respectively. UEP! Fly will initially operate an average of five daily flights with an ATR 72 with capacity for 68 passengers.<br/>
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Flyadeal has received the first of 30 Airbus A320neos it is taking via an order placed by parent Saudia in 2019. Its arrival in Jeddah on 16 July made it the second A320neo to join the low-cost carrier’s fleet, with the first – on lease from Avolon – having entered service in September 2020, according to Cirium fleets data. Saudia placed an order for 65 A320neo-family jets at 2019’s Paris air show, with Flyadeal due to receive its allocation of 30 aircraft over the next three years. As part of that order, the full-service carrier is taking 35 A321neos – of which 15 are the long-range A321XLR. Flyadeal had initially selected Boeing 737 Max jets for its future fleet, but switched to Airbus narrowbodies amid the global grounding of the former. Powered by CFM International Leap-1A engines, Flyadeal’s A320neos are configured with 186 all-economy seats.<br/>
South Korea’s Air Premia has received its air operator certificate. The start-up can commence operations after completing various steps such as obtaining a route permit and reporting its fare structure, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said in a Korean-language statement dated 16 July. Air Premia was evaluated from 6 March 2020 to 15 July this year, approximately 16 months versus 14.9 months for Aero K and 6.3 months for Fly Gangwon, according to MOLIT, as the company delayed the introduction of aircraft from July 2020 to this April, according to the ministry. As part of the evaluation process, the ministry checked whether Air Premia has “sufficient financial capacity” to maintain safe operations after starting up. The company acquired its business license in March 2019 and at that time held W19.2b ($17m) capital.<br/>