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JetBlue Airways has yet to start New York-London service and already has been forced to trim the schedule as travel restrictions hobble demand. “We’ve all been very frustrated the corridor hasn’t opened,” CE Robin Hayes said Tuesday. “There’s no reason not to open it. It’s not data driven.”The carrier will fly its once-daily route between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and London’s Heathrow starting Aug. 11 but will “bring down some of the flying” in September, he said on a quarterly earnings call. The airline will adjust the schedule monthly after that to match demand, Hayes said. JetBlue didn’t elaborate on plans for flights from New York to London’s Gatwick Airport, which are set to begin Sept. 29. The Covid-19 pandemic has hammered the normally highly competitive trans-Atlantic market since the New York-based carrier revealed plans in 2019 to join the fray. JetBlue has vowed to undercut “obscene” business-class fares on the route to woo travelers and has touted a remodeled premium-class cabin as well as added leg room in coach. Hayes’s comments Tuesday came as the airline failed to join some rivals by forecasting profits for the third and fourth quarters. “Naturally, this leaves us wondering whether JetBlue simply exhausted its pricing salvo prematurely, selling too much too soon too cheaply, and thereby not enjoying the summer yield momentum experienced by others,” Jamie Baker, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said in a note to clients.<br/>

Hawaiian Holdings, parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, says relaxed travel restrictions for inbound travellers from the US mainland have gone a long way to help the airline’s bottom line during Q2 2021. The Honolulu-based carrier lost $6.2m in the three-month period that ended on 30 June, compared to a $107m loss in the same period of pandemic-plagued 2020, Hawaiian reports on 27 July. Without federal aid and other special items, the Q2 2021 loss would have been $73.8m. The airline’s revenue during Q2 was $411m, down 42% from Q2 2019 but almost five times the amount the airline achieved in same period of 2020. “We made meaningful strides toward recovery during the second quarter, propelled by continued strong demand on our US mainland routes,” chief executive Peter Ingram says. “It is encouraging to see how far we’ve come and I am optimistic about our continued recovery.”<br/>

Weeks after making its return to Costa Rica, low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines announced it will add a new route from Florida to Guanacaste. Starting November 11, Frontier will fly nonstop between Orlando and LIR on Thursdays and Sundays. “The announcement of this new route from our main tourist source market to Guanacaste is extremely encouraging, especially because it will take place before the start of the high season at the end of the year, contributing to the reactivation and bringing economic relief to the families that depend on it tourism,” said Gustavo Segura, Tourism Minister. The flight from Orlando to Guanacaste will be operated by an Airbus A320-series aircraft with 186 seats and departs at 11:30 a.m., arriving to Liberia at 1:46 p.m. The return flight to Orlando International Airport leaves at 2:51 p.m. The routes are still subject to government approval, per the airline, though tickets are already available for purchase.<br/>

Wizz Air’s CE Jozsef Varadi has won shareholder approval for a potential GBP100m payout in a controversial vote that was open only to a small proportion of investors because of Brexit. Just under two-thirds of the votes at Wizz’s annual general meeting were cast in favour of the bonus scheme, with about a third voting against. But the votes represented just 16 per cent of the company’s issued share capital, far below the average for a UK-listed company and much lower than the previous turnouts at the company.  In late December Wizz significantly watered down the voting rights of investors from outside the European Economic Area, in order to comply with EU rules around airline ownership following Brexit. Irish carrier Ryanair took similar action.  EU regulations demand that airlines with EU operating licences are majority owned and controlled by nationals of the bloc, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein. “The Brexit component has substantially reduced the number of shareholders that can vote,” said Mark Simpson, an aviation analyst at Goodbody. Wizz’s board consulted investors before drawing up the pay scheme, and received the most pushback from UK-based institutions, according to one person familiar with the matter. Wizz said its board had “engaged extensively with shareholders to discuss our approach to remuneration and to seek feedback on our proposals. The board understands the issues raised by certain shareholders but is wholly satisfied that the adoption of the [bonus scheme and remuneration policy] are in the best interests of the company, its shareholders and other stakeholders.” <br/>

Canadian investigators are to probe an engine-control incident involving an Air Baltic Airbus A220-300 during which both powerplants shut down after the aircraft touched down in Copenhagen. Danish authorities have delegated the investigation into the 11 July incident to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. The board says the twinjet (YL-AAQ) had reached top-of-descent on its service from Riga to Copenhagen when the crew disengaged the autothrottle and deployed spoilers to reduce airspeed. A few seconds after the autothrottle disengagement, a mast caution light illuminated for a right-hand throttle failure, and the crew completed an abnormal checklist for the throttle failure before continuing the approach. “After touchdown with both main landing-gear on the ground, both engines shut down,” says the board, without elaborating. “The aircraft came to a full stop on the taxiway and was towed to the gate.” None of the 91 occupants was injured, says the safety board.<br/>

South African Airways subsidiary Mango Airlines temporarily suspended all flights and services on Tuesday until further notice due to outstanding payments to Air Traffic Navigation Services, Mango acting CEO William Ndlovu said. “Senior management and our shareholder are locked-in in emergency discussions to find an amicable solution to this impasse,” Ndlovu said. The budget carrier is in a dire financial position despite the South African parliament having approved a special allocation of 2.7b rand ($182.3m) for SAA subsidiaries. On Monday SAA’s interim CE Thomas Kgokolo said Mango will enter a local form of bankruptcy protection known as business rescue.<br/>

Interglobe Aviation, the operator of India's biggest airline IndiGo, on Tuesday pointed to a steady recovery in bookings after COVID-19 related restrictions led the company to post its sixth consecutive quarterly loss. Air traffic had started showing signs of rebound since the last week of May as virus infections decreased in the country, the company said, even as it warned of pressure from rising fuel costs. "With the second COVID wave receding, we are seeing a measured recovery in bookings for July and August," CEO Ronojoy Dutta said in a post-earnings call. Dutta said he expects capacity to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year but cautioned that a third wave of infections could swiftly disrupt things again. Capacity for Q1 was up by 433.2% compared to the same period last year, when the company's operations came to a near standstill as India went under a lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. For the first quarter ended June 2020, capacity was down 90.9% compared to the same period a year earlier. The company's net loss swelled to 31.79b rupees ($426.84m) in the latest reported quarter, from 28.49b rupees a year earlier. IndiGo has reported losses since the pandemic brought global travel to a near-halt and battered airlines worldwide. Just as the airline showed signs of recovery, the sector was hit by the renewed travel restrictions.<br/>

Fresh waves of coronavirus infections in most of AirAsia Group’s key operating markets dampened any prospect of strong recoveries. Among the group’s four carriers, only its Philippines unit reported a quarter-on-quarter increase in passenger numbers in the three months to 30 June. AirAsia’s Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia carriers saw passenger numbers drop, following a resurgence of infections. AirAsia Philippines carried around 172,000 passengers for the quarter, a 2% increase quarter on quarter. Load factor for the quarter also rose four percentage points compared to the previous quarter, to 78%, hitting a high of 83% in June. AirAsia’s Indonesia unit saw a 1% decline quarter on quarter in passengers carried, at around 308,000. Thai AirAsia carried 722,000 passengers during the period, a 26% decline quarter on quarter. While it began the quarter on a strong note, having resumed all domestic flights, a subsequent rise in infections in the country torpedoed its traffic for the rest of the period. AirAsia Malaysia flew nearly 280,000 passengers during the quarter, a 44% decline compared to the previous period, and the worst decline among the group’s carriers. Malaysia entered into its strictest lockdown during the period — with interstate travel banned — amid a record increase in coronavirus infections. <br/>