Virgin Atlantic, the transatlantic airline founded by billionaire Richard Branson, may need a deeper travel recovery to take hold before it can secure investor backing for its plans to float on the London Stock Exchange, analysts said. Sky News first reported Virgin’s plans for an initial public offering on Saturday, saying an autumn announcement was likely. Barclays and Citi have been appointed by the airline to handle the float, a source familiar with the situation said. But analysts said Virgin, which has declined to comment on the IPO plans, may need to wait longer. “This is a bit of a strange time to be selling airline shares,” said Hargreaves Lansdown equity analyst Laura Hoy. Like most airlines, Virgin has been brought to its knees by the pandemic, with the carrier even more severely affected than rival British Airways due to its focus on Britain-US routes, which still remain partially closed. “The pitch to investors will clearly be the timing of the return to normalised demand and business traffic, with this challenged by concerns over the longevity of government-imposed restrictions,” analysts at Goodbody said in a note. “That debate will be central if the listing is launched as early as the autumn.” There is no clarity on when the United States will reverse its ban on UK arrivals, and, globally passenger numbers are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023, industry body IATA has said.<br/>
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Air Arabia, the Middle East & North Africa’s first and largest low-cost carrier operator, has reported a profitable first half (January to June) 2021 despite Covid-19's continued impact on the aviation’s industry financial and operational performance. Air Arabia reported a net profit of AED44m ($12m) for the period, an increase of 126% compared to the corresponding first half 2020. In the same period, the airline posted a turnover of AED1b ($272m), a 5% increase compared to the corresponding first half of last year. More than 2.3m passengers flew with Air Arabia between January and June 2021 across the carrier’s five hubs while the airline’s average seat load factor – or passengers carried as a percentage of available seats – during the first six months of 2021 stood an average at 73%. Air Arabia managed to register a profitable second quarter despite Covid-19 pandemic continuous impact on the industry’s bottom-line. This is the third consecutive profitable quarter that the company managed to register since the pandemic hit the aviation industry. <br/>
Super Air Jet, the new Indonesian carrier with links to Lion Group founder Rusdi Kirana, has commenced operations, weeks after teasing an imminent launch. The carrier began flying from Jakarta to Medan and Batam from 6 August, operating a daily service with Airbus A320s. According to Super Air Jet, it picked the two cities as they were “the most popular destinations for millennials”, which will form the fledgling carrier’s core target audience. It also notes that the two cities possess huge travel potential. Batam and Medan were among the six points first disclosed by the carrier in July, when it shed more light on its operations. Other cities Super Air Jet is eyeing to serve include Palembang and Padang. The carrier operates a low-cost model, starting with domestic, point-to-point flights, before expanding to international destinations. Super Air Jet received its AOC in late-June, and has been cleared to start operations with three Airbus A320 aircraft.<br/>
Philippine Airlines’ filing for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection has been further delayed after one of the banks providing financing for the process backed out, according to two lessors with exposure to the airline. “The airline and the shareholder specifically are… already engaged in discussions with a replacement local back to try to fast-track the replacement tranche that they need to get in,” one lessor says, adding that the process could be delayed by about a month as a result. PAL has been aiming to raise $505m of debtor-in-possession financing, provided partly by the shareholder and partly by Philippine financial institutions, including banks, sources say. One Philippine bank earmarked to provide part of the DIP financing has decided not to proceed, Cirium understands. This is not the first time that the airline’s restructuring process, on which it is being advised by Seabury Capital, has been delayed. PAL had previously guided lessors that it planned to file for Chapter 11 at the end of May, but missed that deadline. Its most recent guidance to lessors was for the end of July, but that deadline has also now been missed.<br/>
Virgin Australia has announced the addition of 10,000 new seats across two new routes ahead of the September school holidays, which skirt the border closures that currently impact the country’s most populous states. From September, Virgin Australia will fly direct from Adelaide to Launceston for the very first time, as well as re-introduce direct flights between Adelaide and Darwin. Notably, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory are currently the only three states without major travel restrictions in place, and people can freely move between these states. The news will add over 4,000 seats per month between Adelaide and Launceston, with three return services per week, as well as 6,000 seats per month between the South Australia capital and Darwin, with four return services per week. “With open borders between South Australia and Tasmania and Northern Territory, we’re able to finally start direct flights between Adelaide-Darwin, as well as offer a new direct service between Adelaide-Launceston,” said Dave Emerson, Virgin Australia CCO. “With the September school holiday period fast approaching, we know our great value and fully flexible airfares will help families who are able to travel, to experience all of the wonderful things to see and do in and around Adelaide, Launceston and Darwin.” It comes as the airline continues discussions with unions over the possible stand-down of over 1,000 of its employees, after more than half of the country was plunged into lockdown and state borders once again snapped shut.<br/>
Australia’s Regional Express will furlough an unspecified number of employees in the coming months, as it flags a deeper full-year loss amid ongoing lockdowns in several parts of the country. In a 10 August stock exchange filing, Rex states it would be implementing “temporary stand downs” after consulting with its stakeholders. It did not elaborate, except to say that more details will be shared at the end of the week. The carrier, which in March launched domestic jet operations, also forecast a pre-tax statutory loss of A$18m ($13.2m) for the year ended 30 June. This compares to a A$15m loss it forecast in early June. It attributes the dismal forecast to a domestic travel market upended by a resurgence in the coronavirus, particularly the more infectious Delta variant. Since June, Sydney, as well as the state of New South Wales, have been placed under lockdown, to curb the spread of infections. Subsequently, other states have entered lockdown and shut their domestic borders. Rex in its revised earnings guidance concedes it underestimated the length of border closures. “Furthermore, no measures were taken initially to mitigate the losses, as the lockdown was perceived to be temporary and of short duration,” Rex says. <br/>