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British airline and holiday group Jet2 is in advanced talks to buy dozens of narrowbody passenger jets, with Europe’s Airbus seen as the front-runner in a potential blow to Jet2’s current supplier Boeing, industry sources said. If confirmed, the unusual decision by a leisure carrier to switch suppliers could involve the purchase of around 50 Airbus jets, worth some $5 billion before widespread airline industry discounts of at least 50%, one of the sources said. “As a successful airline and tour operator we are constantly in discussion with different aircraft manufacturers; this is part of our normal course of business,” a Jet2 spokesperson said. Airbus and Boeing both declined comment. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources cautioned a deal would depend on the outcome of talks that are ongoing amid fierce planemaker competition in the wake of the coronavirus travel slump, but said Airbus was seen as current front-runner.<br/>

Sun Country Airlines posted a $51.8m profit in Q2 2021 as leisure travel demand in its scheduled service rebounded strongly following the more-than year-long coronavirus crisis in the air transport industry. Net profit for the period rose from a $6m loss in Q2of pandemic-plagued 2020, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-headquartered low-cost airline says on 28 July. Revenue for the period came in at $149.2m, up from $35.4m during the same period in 2020. That’s $22m, or 17%, higher than Q1 revenue, and 12% below Q2 2021. “We had a very strong second quarter driven by revenue outperformance in our scheduled passenger service business amid strong continued recovery in leisure travel demand,” says chief executive Jude Bricker. “Passenger revenue growth was driven by higher fares, strong ancillary sales and continued recovery in capacity. When combined with our resilient cargo business and steadily improving charter operation, we generated a second quarter profit after removing the benefit of the Cares Act grants, further demonstrating the strength of our unique, variable capacity business model,” Bricker adds.<br/>

Allegiant Travel Company, the parent of ultra-low-cost carrier Allegiant Air, posted a healthy profit in the second three months of the year as the company has returned to business levels last seen before the global health crisis. “The second quarter marked the return of leisure demand to pre-pandemic levels,” chief executive Maury Gallagher tells analysts on the company’s quarterly earnings results call on 28 July. “These results suggest we are close if not back to ‘normal’, where we were in the early days of 2020. We continue to lead the industry out of this covid black hole,” he adds. The Las Vegas-based airline reports it earned $95m in Q2 2020, compared to a $93m loss for the same quarter in 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to make itself felt in the industry and around the world. In Q1 2021, the company had reported a profit of $6.9m. Revenue for the three months that ended on 30 June was $472m, up from $133m in the same quarter in 2020 and just slightly below the $492m it reported in Q2 2019.<br/>

German leisure airline Condor said on Wednesday it would order 16 Airbus A330neo jets to replace a wide-bodied fleet of Boeing 767 aircraft. "The first aircraft is expected in autumn 2022, whilst the replacement of the entire long-haul fleet is scheduled to be completed by mid-2024," Condor said on its website. It did not say how it would acquire the planes but market sources said it was expected to buy an unspecified number from Airbus with the rest to be rented from leasing companies. The deal comes a day after EU regulators approved E525.3m in German aid for Condor that will help the airline restructure after an earlier decision was annulled by a European court. It follows a competition between Airbus and Boeing to provide the A330neo or Boeing 787 to Condor, the sources said. Condor has a mixed fleet of planes from both planemakers, but relies solely on its ageing 767s for long-haul needs.<br/>

Wizz Air expects capacity to ramp up to between 90% and 100% of pre-pandemic levels in July and August as summer demand for European travel grows, and this could get an extra boost from further easing of UK restrictions. Britain is set to exempt fully vaccinated travellers from the European Union from quarantine in the coming days, which Wizz Air CE Jozsef Varadi said would help Britain to catch up with the bloc. “Continental Europe has been more open for travel and as a result, demand has reacted much quicker and much more robustly for summer,” Varadi said. Wizz Air shares jumped 6% to 4,927 pence in mid-morning trading on Wednesday on the positive summer outlook. They were also boosted by Varadi saying that Wizz could surpass its pre-pandemic size by the end of the year depending on how restrictions pan out. “We should be getting well above 100%, and personally, I would hope that we will get there before Christmas,” Varadi said.<br/>

Billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is planning on having 70 aircraft within four years for a new airline he wants to set up in India on optimism more people will travel by air. Jhunjhunwala, who is considering investing $35m and would own 40% of the carrier, expects to get a no-objection certificate from India’s aviation ministry in the next 15 days, he said Wednesday. The ultra-low cost airline will be called Akasa Air and the team, which includes a former senior executive of Delta, is looking at planes that can carry 180 passengers, he said. It’s a bold bet by Jhunjhunwala, who’s known locally as India’s Warren Buffett, in a market that has seen some airlines collapse in the face of intense fare wars and high costs. Still, what was once the world’s fastest-growing aviation market holds an allure and Jhunjhunwala is looking at opportunities to woo flyers with a brand new carrier offering low fares. “For the culture of a company to be frugal you’ve to start off fresh,” Jhunjhunwala said. “I’m very, very bullish on India’s aviation sector in terms of demand.” Even before the pandemic, airlines in India were struggling. Kingfisher Airlines, once the country’s second-largest domestic carrier, ended operations in 2012, and Jet Airways India, which was recently approved to fly again, collapsed in 2019. While demand for air travel has been hit globally, India’s aviation industry is at greater risk of delayed recovery as the threat of a third wave of infections looms. Airlines are feeling the impact.<br/>

Japanese budget carrier Skymark Airlines is preparing to raise 4b yen ($36m) from shareholders, Nikkei has learned, as it aims to strengthen its finances and recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The company will raise capital from investment fund Integral and the government-backed Development Bank of Japan, as well as ANA Holdings, all of which hold a stake in the carrier. As early as August, Skymark will raise 2b yen through a shareholder allocation, and another 2b yen in subordinated loans. It appears that the subordinated loans, which will be financed by the DBJ, will be fully recognized as equity for rating purposes. Integral, which is Skymark's largest shareholder, with a stake of 50.1%, is expected to underwrite about 1b yen while a fund created by DBJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. will be responsible for about 670m yen. ANA will underwrite about 330m yen. SMBC and Mizuho Bank have lent Skymark 30b yen in syndicated loans. The loans are due at the end of July but the banks have agreed to refinance. The move by the discount airline comes amid a sharp fall in air travel due to the pandemic, with various airlines struggling to keep afloat. <br/>

Thai AirAsia has extended its domestic flight suspension for more than a week, as Thailand battles its worst-ever wave of coronavirus infections. The suspension will now last through 8 August, instead of 31 July as previously disclosed, says the Thai unit of the AirAsia Group. “We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will be prepared to reinstate our scheduled flight services again as soon as possible,” the carrier adds. Low-cost carrier Nok Air, meanwhile, announced a “partial suspension of operations due to force majeure” from 1 August. This follows domestic capacity cuts imposed for July, it adds. Nok, which is undergoing a business rehabilitation process, did not elaborate what the partial suspension meant, except to say it will “utilise all remedial measures and hope that the situation will recover to normal soon”. <br/>