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Southwest no longer expects to turn a profit in Q3 as a recent rise in coronavirus cases slows sales and drives an increase in cancellations. In a securities filing on Wednesday, the company forecast revenue for the three months that end in September to be down 15 to 20% from the same period in 2019, a decline of three to four percentage points from its previous estimate. The revised forecast is a rapid turnaround from a few weeks ago, when Southwest and other major carriers said that business was booming and that the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus was not yet affecting sales. In fact, Southwest said Wednesday that it was profitable again in July, but that it no longer expected to turn a profit for the current quarter, at least after excluding the effect of federal payroll aid to the industry. Late last month, Scott Kirby, the CE of United, said the Delta variant had not affected sales at all. “The most likely outcome is that the recovery in demand continues largely unabated,” he said on a call to discuss quarterly financial results with analysts and reporters. After climbing for months, the number of people flying in the United States appears to have stagnated in recent weeks at about 80% of 2019 levels, according to TSA airport screening data. Still, more than 2.2m people were screened on Aug. 1, the most relative to 2019 since the pandemic began. The rebound so far has mainly been driven by people traveling on vacations or visiting friends and family.<br/>

Alaska Airlines told staff on Wednesday that it is considering making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for employees, according to company memo. The policy change would make the Seattle-based carrier the latest airline to require vaccines for its employees. Alaska, which has roughly 20,000 employees, said if it does mandate vaccines it would do so after the FDA gives full approval to one of the vaccines that are currently available under emergency approval. Airline executives have recently raised concerns about the fast-spreading delta variant of Covid. “As an employer with a duty to keep you safe and given the contagiousness and health risks of the COVID-19 virus and its variants, we are within our rights to make this decision and to ask you for information about your vaccine status,” Alaska told employees. It said that there would be exceptions for religious or medical reasons, similar to other companies’ policies.”<br/>

Southwest lowered its revenue and profit forecast Wednesday, blaming the Covid delta variant for a drop in bookings. The airline is the second in less than a week to warn that the fast-spreading variant will weigh on results. Frontier Airlines said Thursday it would break even, at best, this quarter because of the variant. Southwest said it expects August operating revenue to be down 15% to 20% compared with the same month in 2019. That’s more than an earlier forecast for a 12% to 17% drop. “The Company has recently experienced a deceleration in close-in bookings and an increase in close-in trip cancellations in August 2021, which are believed to be driven by the recent rise in COVID-19 cases associated with the Delta variant,” Southwest said in a filing. It said September revenue will likely be down 15% to 25% from 2019, its first estimate for the month. Southwest said it was profitable in July, but the impact of the delta variant in August and September “will make it difficult” to turn a profit in third quarter without counting federal aid that’s provided some temporary relief in covering its labor costs. Southwest has restored more capacity compared with airlines like Delta and United, and the carrier’s pilots’ union has raising concerns that staffing shortages could hurt operation this fall. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association “believes that without a schedule reduction, operational woes will continue, but it does not appear that Network Planning is properly accounting for the operational woes from much more than just the ‘weather disruptions,’” it said in a note to pilots on Monday.<br/>

JetBlue Airways Corp started transatlantic flights between New York and London on Wednesday, planning to grab market share with low fares and drive a recovery on what is usually one of the world's busiest and most lucrative international routes. Transatlantic travel remains partially shut as the United States is still not allowing most travelers from Britain into the country because of the coronavirus pandemic. Anyone who does enter, including US citizens, must present a negative COVID-19 test. The UK only opened to fully vaccinated US travelers earlier in August. But New York-based JetBlue pressed ahead with the start of its daily John F. Kennedy Airport to Heathrow service, counting on its new Airbus A321LR jets, a longer-range variant of the A321neo, to underpin profits.<br/>

Global Crossing Airlines, a charter carrier based in Miami, has begun passenger operations. The airline, which also refers to itself as “GlobalX”, received final FAA and US DoT approvals late last week, it says on 10 August. It launched its first charter flight on 7 August. “We are obviously very pleased that we have cleared all DOT and FAA regulatory requirements and have begun revenue flights as of last Saturday,” says chief executive Ed Wegel. “We are seeing very strong demand for our aircraft and will be announcing some major track charter programs (where we fly for a client long term and every day), as well as US government and other on-demand charters.”<br/>

British regulators have cleared Aer Lingus to begin flying to the United States from Manchester Airport in England. The news comes as global industry statistics confirm that tough Government travel bans sent traffic at the Republic’s airports into the steepest decline anywhere in Europe. The Irish airline plans to fly to the US and Barbados from this autumn using four aircrafts originally destined for the Republic. The UK Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that it has granted an operating licence to Aer Lingus, the Irish carrier’s British subsidiary. “This allows the company to undertake transatlantic scheduled passenger services between the UK and the US,” said the authority. Aer Lingus is due to begin flying to New York JFK and Orlando in Florida from September 30th. The carrier had originally hoped to launch the services at the end of last month, but said in June it would delay this until September due to ongoing travel restrictions. Aer Lingus plans to launch the Barbados service on October 20th. The airline hopes to exploit opportunities left by rival Thomas Cook’s failure in 2019.<br/>

Virgin Atlantic will launch flights to Barbados and Orlando from Edinburgh as part of wider capacity growth to the region. The UK carrier says it will operate twice-weekly flights from Edinburgh to Barbados from 5 December. Virgin Atlantic says the route represents its first international flights from the Scottish capital in the carrier’s 37-year history and will be Scotland’s only direct service to the Caribbean. Twice-weekly flights from Edinburgh to Orlando are scheduled to begin in April 2022. The two routes will be operated with Airbus A330s. A new thrice-weekly seasonal service from Manchester to Montego Bay in Jamaica will commence on 6 November, using A330s too. From London Heathrow, Virgin Atlantic will start twice-weekly flights to the Bahamas with on 20 November, and thrice-weekly services to St Lucia on 18 December. The two routes will be operated with Boeing 787-9s and A330s, respectively.<br/>

Emirates, the world’s largest long-haul airline before the pandemic, will restore capacity on 29 routes as the easing of travel restrictions boosts demand. The airline will increase its UK services to 73 a week, the Dubai-based carrier said in a statement Wednesday. Emirates will serve London Heathrow with three daily flights operated by Airbus A380 planes with immediate effect, before increasing the frequency to six over time. The airline will also boost capacity to the US, South Africa and other countries on the African continent. The UK last week downgraded the UAE to medium-risk status from high, meaning travelers can isolate at a home rather than face pricey hotel quarantine.<br/>

is in advanced discussions with a newly created Indian budget carrier to sell 737 Max jets, according to people familiar with the matter, a deal that could give the US planemaker a crucial breakthrough in a major market dominated by Airbus. The airline, Akasa, backed by billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, has also held discussions with Airbus for its best-selling A320neo jets, but that model isn’t available for delivery until several years down the track, tilting the equation in Boeing’s favor, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. The talks aren’t finalized and could still fall apart, the people said. Akasa, which is seeking initial approval from India’s aviation ministry, plans to use sale-and-leaseback deals to finance the planes, one of the people said. This would allow the new airline to receive cash from leasing firms as it takes possession of the jets. Jhunjhunwala’s new airline is looking at operating a fleet of 70 aircraft in four years, the businessman said in a Bloomberg Television interview last month. An order for 70 units of 737 Max-8 jets -- the most popular model -- would be valued at $8.5b at sticker prices.<br/>

Cebu Pacific Air narrowed its second quarter operating loss to P5.8b ($115m), with revenue more than doubling to P3.2b from a year earlier. According to its unaudited results statement for the three months ended 30 June, the stronger quarterly revenue was due mainly to passenger revenues jumping ten-fold to P1.1b from P118m a year earlier, when the Philippines was largely locked down amid the coronavirus pandemic. Expenses, however, rose 16% to P9b, driven by higher costs related to repair and maintenance, as well as flight operations. Net losses narrowed to P6.7b from P7.9b in the second quarter of 2020. The carrier notes that travel restrictions related to Covid-19 continue to have an impact both on domestic and international operations. “The Covid-19 pandemic could have a material impact on the group’s financial results for the rest of 2021 and even periods thereafter,” it says. “Considering the evolving nature of the pandemic, the group will continue to monitor the situation.”<br/>

Royal Brunei Airlines will reduce flight operations to a few direct services between July and October, amid a new wave of Covid-19 infections. The airline said in a 9 August update that it would “retain vital connectivity” during the period, maintaining direct services to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, Manila and London. It cancelled flights to Jakarta and Surabaya in Indonesia until 15 September, citing “health and safety concerns”. Cirium data shows that Royal Brunei Airlines has been operating fewer than 10 flights per day since April 2020, far lower than the 30-50 flights per day in 2019. The airline has 14 aircraft in its in-service and stored fleet, comprising two Airbus A320s, seven A320neos and five Boeing 787-8s. Brunei reported locally transmitted cases on 7 August for the first time in 15 months, prompting authorities to tighten pandemic measures for two weeks until 21 August.<br/>

Rex has revealed that it will introduce “temporary stand-downs” of staff later this week as its full-year loss for 2021 was revised down from $15m to $18m. It’s rumoured that hundreds of staff across the airline’s network could be affected, with the employees supporting Rex’s new Boeing 737 operations expected to be hit the hardest. In an announcement posted to the ASX on Tuesday, Rex said that ongoing lockdowns and border closures across Australia’s most populous states of NSW and Victoria had “significantly impacted revenue”. The airline added that “no measures were taken initially to mitigate the losses as the lockdown [in NSW] was perceived as temporary and of short duration”. The news comes just days after Rex criticised rival Qantas for announcing it would stand down 2,500 staff across its Qantas and Jetstar brands, with Rex deputy chairman John Sharp calling the decision “premature”.<br/>