Spirit Airlines said Monday the cancellation of more than 2,800 flights over an 11-day stretch this summer cost the budget airline about $50m in lost revenue and caused spending to soar. The airline said the service meltdown that started in late July and a rise in COVID-19 cases are causing more last-minute cancellations and softer bookings. Spirit said that it will reduce flights — it called the moves “tactical schedule reductions” — for the rest of the quarter, which ends Sept. 30. With all the cancellations, and now fewer flights for the next six weeks, Spirit estimated that its third-quarter revenue will range between $885m and $955m, or 4% to 11% below the same quarter in pre-pandemic 2019. Spirit’s cancellation numbers have returned to more normal levels. However, the airline said that recovering from the crisis caused expenses to climb. The airline said it paid to put some stranded passengers on flights operated by other airlines, and covered their hotel stays. It also incurred higher labor costs, such as overtime. Spirit forecast that its third-quarter operating expenses will be slightly above $1 billion — an increase of up to 20% over Q3 2019.<br/>
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Alaska Airlines has ordered another 12 Boeing 737 Max 9s and taken 25 new purchase options – a deal handing another needed win to Boeing’s rebounding narrowbody programme. The 12 orders were converted from purchase options by Alaska, which expects to receive the jets in 2023 and 2024. The new order brings Alaska’s total outstanding number of 737 Max 9 orders to 88 jets. The carrier already has five 737 Max in service. Alaska’s updated fleet plan called for the Seattle-based airline to receive 12 737 Max 9s in 2021, 31 in 2022, 32 in 2023 and 18 in 2024. The airline has made several changes to its Max orders in recent months. Until late last year, Alaska held orders for 32 737 Max 9s and options for another 37. But in December 2020, the airline said it had revamped its agreements with Boeing to include 68 Max 9 orders and 53 options. Since then, Alaska has converted 25 of those option to firm orders and taken 25 new options.<br/>
Emirates has expanded its co-operation with South African regional operator Airlink into a full codeshare partnership. Airlink began operating flights under its own brand last year after the end of a long-standing franchise agreement with national carrier South African Airways. Emirates began interlining with Airlink in October last year and is now turning the co-operation into a full codeshare agreement. That covers 40 domestic and regional flights, connecting to Emirates’ services into Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. Emirates CCO Adnan Kazim says: ”The expansion of the Emirates-Airlink partnership marks an important step forward in our relationship. We are committed to growing our operations in South Africa, and with the strong connection opportunities being provided collectively with Airlink we hope to help jumpstart the recovery of the local travel and tourism industry.” The UAE carrier has had a codeshare with SAA for more than 20 years, although that has been on hold since the South African airline was forced to suspend operations amid major financial restructuring last year, though it has taken a step towards to resuming flights after its operating licence was restored.<br/>
Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways’ operating loss widened significantly in the second quarter to KD4.73m ($15.7m) as compared to KD1.87m in the same period in 2020. The group says the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 in most countries has caused widespread disruptions to business, with a consequential negative impact on economic activities. The economic fallout of the crisis is significant and evolving, impacting the key performance indicators of the group. Total loss incurred during the period was KD6.52m versus KD3.93m in Q2 2020. The airline generated KD7.42m in revenues, down 4.1% year-on-year. As compared to Q2 2020, passenger revenue declined to KD5.88m from KD6.94m whereas ancillary revenue increased to KD750,015 from KD136,885. Cargo revenues declined 17% year-on-year to KD480,497. In July, Jazeera completed a rights issue amounting to KD10m. As of 30 June, its cash and cash equivalents stood at KD8.29m. For the January to June period, Jazeera has posted an operating loss of KD8.84m, an increase from KD3m in H1 2020. Total loss for the period stood at KD11.6m as compared to KD9.95m in the same period year ago. The carrier saw a 42% year-on-year decline in its revenue to KD15.5m.<br/>
Jeju Air aims to raise nearly W210b ($180m) from an equity raise. The airline is offering about 11.3m new shares tentatively priced at W18,650 each, it says in Korean-language corporate disclosure dated 13 August. W80b of the gross proceeds will be used for debt repayment and the outstanding W130b for operating capital. The shares are expected to list on 12 November. The subscription price will be finalised on 13 October and will reflect the volume-weighted average price of the company’s stock at that point. These shares are available for subscription under Jeju Air’s employee stock ownership plan on 18 October and by existing shareholders on 18-19 October. Any outstanding shares will be offered to the public on 21-22 October. The company’s issued common shares is currently just under 38.5m.<br/>
Indian carrier SpiceJet saw its net loss for Q1 of its 2022 financial year widen to INR7.29b, compared with INR 5.9b a year earlier. Total revenue for the three months ended 30 June rose 79.6% to INR12.7 billion, as the carrier operated more capacity, but this was offset by India’s second wave of Covid-19, which hurt demand, according to its results statement. Operating results for SpiceJet’s passenger business were weaker, with an EBITDA loss of INR2.9b, widening from INR810m a year earlier. Passenger revenue, however, nearly doubled to INR6.2b. The carrier also managed a domestic load factor of 69.5% for the quarter. “The last five quarters have been the most difficult phase ever for SpiceJet as aviation remained the worst-hit sector during the second wave as well,” says chairman and managing director Ajay Singh. “[The first quarter] was severely impacted by the second wave as passenger traffic almost disappeared.” On bright spot was cargo, which generated revenues of INR4.7 billion, more than double that of a year earlier. The carrier says that the SpiceXpress unit saw a net profit of INR300m in Q1. The airline plans divest SpiceXpress, to better allow it to raise capital independently.<br/>
Airlines experienced first-half losses and only expect a modest improvement during the remainder of the year as a ban on domestic flights has worsened the pace of recovery in air travel. Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of Bangkok Airways, said the lack of international flights and adjustment of domestic operations to meet travel demand caused its revenue to drop 88.8% in the first six months of this year. The airline reported total revenue of 2.8b baht, down 61.8% year-on-year. TAA's revenue during the first half of this year plummeted 75% to 2.43b baht, while its net loss increased to 3.56b baht from 1.81b the previous year. "The new outbreak in April directly impacted operation in May and June. The airline had to adjust flight frequencies amid the outbreak to preserve cash flow," said Santisuk Klongchaiya, CE of Thai AirAsia (TAA). The number of passengers stood at 1.7m, down 65% as the average load factor was at 64%. He said the second half will see a slight improvement in the operation as the severe pandemic and sluggish vaccination triggered the CAAT to impose travel restrictions on domestic flights from July 21. TAA has suspended operation to comply with the CAAT's announcement from July 12 until Aug 31. Santisuk said the airline has to shift its plan to the non-aero business to offer various products and services via the AirAsia super app in which AirAsia Group acquired Gojek's operations in Thailand last month.<br/>