The parent company of new low-cost US air carrier Breeze Airways said on Wednesday it had closed a $200m Series B funding round led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRoc and Knighthead Capital Management. Breeze Aviation Group previously raised more than $100m and began flights in late May. Breeze is now serving 16 US cities and 39 routes. The company said it would use the funding to expand operations. Breeze CE David Neeleman said on Wednesday the carrier has had more than 100,000 passengers since launching operations. Breeze currently has 13 airplanes and is focusing on flights between smaller U.S. cities that have little or no direct service from larger carriers. Breeze is serving cities like Tampa, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; New Orleans, Norfolk, Virginia, Louisville, Kentucky; Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hartford, Connecticut, and Akron, Ohio. Neeleman said the new funding showed the airline was “here to stay.” He said the funding would allow the airline to “be opportunistic about some airplanes that might be available.”<br/>
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Southwest launched this week new hiring referral bonuses for staff as the carrier struggles to hire new workers to keep up with a rebound in travel demand. “Southwest is experiencing a sharp decline in qualified applicants due to low labor force participation and competition for available talent,” Southwest VP and chief people officer Julie Weber wrote in a Tuesday note to staff. Southwest staff can receive 20,000 “SWAG Points” — 10,000 on their referral’s first day of work and 10,000 after that person completes six months with the airline. Those points on Southwest’s internal platform have a taxable value of 1.5 cents each, a company document says, giving the points a value of about $300. Southwest’s points can be redeemed for frequent flyer miles, gift cards or concert tickets. The points cannot be redeemed for cash, Southwest said. Five employees’ referrals will also be selected each week for 5,000 points for the referring staff member, Weber wrote. Southwest and other carriers spent much of the pandemic urging workers to take early retirement packages or unpaid or partially paid time off. Now, they are scrambling to hire or retrain staff to cater to the rebound in travel demand that materialized faster than many airline executives expected.<br/>
Azul Linhas Aereas, Brazil’s third-biggest airline, has entered a code-sharing agreement with Emirates, the Brazilian company said on Wednesday in a securities filing. Azul flies to more cities in Brazil than its competitors, and Emirates flies to Sao Paulo five times a week from its hub in Dubai with Boeing 777 aircraft.<br/>
As more Canadian companies implement vaccine policies for staff and clients, an employment lawyer says provisions that still allow unvaccinated people to participate are at the core of their legality. Porter Airlines and Sun Life Financial Inc. recently joined a growing list of Canadian businesses that will require their employees to be vaccinated, but there are caveats. Porter Airlines says unvaccinated employees can still work provided they get tested 72 hours prior to a shift, and said it'll provide free rapid testing in certain jurisdictions. “At the core of it, it's to ensure the health and safety of our team members and as well passengers,” said Michael Deluce, president and CEO of Porter, which has not been operating for more than a year due to the pandemic. “With our relaunch on Sept. 8 ... we wanted to have the safest possible environment from the get-go.”<br/>
Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA), the new state-owned carrier created to replace bankrupt Alitalia, has received a green light from Italy’s civil aviation authority ENAC to start flying and selling tickets, ENAC said on Wednesday. The go-ahead arrives after months of wrangling with the European Union over the role of the state in saving the carrier, and is expected to ease the hiring of some Alitalia employees by ITA. ITA declined to comment. Some 7,000 staff out of a 11,000-strong Alitalia workforce are currently subject to a costly temporary lay-off scheme. ENAC said it had issued an air operator’s certificate (AOC) and air transport operating licence to ITA on Wednesday. “ITA can take off,” ENAC President Pierluigi Di Palma said. The new carrier will initially operate a fleet of 52 planes, seven of which are wide-body, used for longer-haul routes. The number is expected to increase progressively to 105 aircraft in 2025. Italy’s industry ministry said in July it expected ITA to hire between 2,750 and 2,950 of Alitalia’s staff this year, rising to 5,550-5,700 in 2025, with up to 4,000 workers likely to join its handling and maintenance units. ITA, which is expected to start flying in mid-October, will have its work cut out competing with low-cost carriers including Ryanair and Wizz Air after they scooped up Italy’s domestic routes during the summer. <br/>
Ryanair has announced 11 new flight routes from UK cities this winter, with seats from GBP19.99. Fliers from Birmingham will gain direct links to Bucharest in Romania, Milan and Turin in Italy, and the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Malaga and Barcelona are new destinations for the airline from Bristol Airport, while Bournemouth locals will benefit from services to Budapest and Wroclaw in Poland. Other routes include Gatwick to Malaga, Cardiff to Dublin and Luton to Grenoble, all of which will depart six times a week. Part of the company’s recovery programme, the new additions will take Ryanair’s total routes to 400 this winter. The carrier is aiming to capitalise on British travellers becoming more confident in booking city breaks to Europe. “As Europe’s largest airline, we are delighted to announce 11 new winter routes from UK cities Bournemouth, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and London for those who are looking to enjoy a sunny winter getaway or take in the sights on a city break,” said the airline’s director of commercial, Jason McGuinness. The company has also launched a sale on flights up until March 2022, set to run until midnight on 19 August, with fares of GBP19.99 available on numerous routes.<br/>
El Al Wednesday called for more financial aid from the government to help it weather the effects of the Delta variant as it posted a narrower quarterly net loss than the year ago period on an improvement in air travel. El Al, which has new ownership and management, has reported losses for three years and racked up debt to renew its fleet which has reached 45 planes at an average of 10 years old. It was hit hard after suspending scheduled passenger flights in March 2020 at the outset of the COVID-19 health crisis when Israel, like other countries, closed its borders to most foreigners, compounding its financial woes. In the April-June quarter, El Al laid off 1,900 employees, nearly one-third of its staff, as part of a recovery plan mandated by the government to receive a $210m bailout package. It recorded a net loss of $80.7m, compared with a loss of $104.7m a year earlier. Revenue rose 47% to $222.6m, while jet fuel expenses increased to $44.8m from $21.4m. Although small numbers of foreign tourists were allowed to enter Israel starting in June, El Al said it was operating at 30% of its potential while there has been an 80% drop in the number of passengers at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. CE Avigal Soreq noted that the Delta variant has forced the airline to again adjust its expenses to the level of activity. "We also need an additional assistance package from the state, in view of the new flight restrictions. This is similar to El Al's competitors, who receive subsidies from their governments, which gives them an unfair competitive advantage," Soreq said.<br/>
Ryanair has hit back at Italy’s civil aviation authority ENAC in a dispute over extra fees for seats assigned to adults accompanying minors and disabled people, saying the authority had made incorrect claims. ENAC had on Tuesday warned it could fine Ryanair after preliminary checks showed it had not yet adapted its IT and operating systems to ensure a supplement is not charged when booking seats next to underage passengers or people with disabilities. ENAC previously urged airlines operating in Italy to cancel the seat surcharges by Aug. 15, after an Italian court rejected a request by Ryanair in early August to freeze a regulation on the matter until a court hearing on Sept. 8. But the Irish carrier, for whom Italy was the biggest market in terms of revenue in the fiscal year ended March 31, replied on Wednesday saying ENAC’s claims were “incorrect” and “misleading”. “Ryanair implemented temporary measures on Aug. 13 to ensure adult passengers accompanying minors or special needs passengers have several options to avail (themselves) of free allocated seating,” a spokeswoman said. She added this was a temporary solution “as it was impossible to fully amend the booking system in the unreasonable timeframe set by ENAC”. ENAC had also said Ryanair only modified a contract detail allowing passengers not to pay or to obtain a refund of the surcharge at the end of a complex procedure.<br/>
South Korean low-cost carriers remained in the red during Q2, though losses narrowed on the back of revenue uptick. For the quarter ended 30 June, Korean Air sister carrier Jin Air reported an operating loss of W49b ($41.7m), narrowing the W60b loss it made during the same period in 2020. Jin Air also narrowed its net loss — at W50.4b in the current quarter, compared to W59b in 2020. The low-cost carrier more than doubled revenue, to W63.4b, outpacing a 36% increase in costs to W112b. Domestic services accounted for 88% of revenue, as border restrictions were still in effect. Cargo revenue for the quarter shrank: while it made up 6% of the airline’s revenue in the second quarter of 2020, it only made up 0.3% in the current period. Jin Air flew 2.8m passengers during the quarter, reflecting a 59% increase. Capacity more than doubled, though traffic fell 51% year on year. Compatriot T’way Air disclosed an operating loss of W34.8b, narrowing the W48.5b loss it reported last year. Revenue for the quarter increased more than two-fold to W56.8b, as the airline increased flying activity. It mounted more than 8,700 flights during the period, 46% higher year on year. Passenger numbers, at 1.4m, was nearly 70% higher compared to the same quarter in 2020. Meanwhile, Jeju Air reported an operating loss of W70.8b for the three-month period. Comparatively, the airline was W84.3 billion in the red for Q2 2020. <br/>