British Airways is planning to replace its short-haul operation at Gatwick airport with a new low-cost business, as passenger demand continues to suffer in the pandemic. The International Airlines Group-owned carrier said on Thursday that it was “working with our unions on proposals for a short-haul operation” at the UK’s second-busiest airport. It declined to comment further. Travel website Headforpoints.com reported on Thursday that BA had emailed staff to say that it was considering “a new operating subsidiary to run alongside our existing long-haul Gatwick operation” that would serve the airport from next summer. “This was previously a highly competitive market,” the note continued, “but for us to run a sustainable airline in the current environment, we need a competitive operating model.” It added that the proposed new business would “help us to be both agile and competitive, allowing us to build a sustainable short-haul presence at Gatwick over time”. It would not be the first time BA has attempted to set up a low-cost airline, should the mooted plans go ahead. In 1998, the company founded Go Fly, which operated flights between London Stansted and Europe before ultimately being bought out by rival easyJet four years later.<br/>
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Qantas Airways’ full year results were awash with red as the carrier continued to weather the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. But there was at least one bright spot: wine sales. Wine may not be top of mind when it comes to airline results. But at Qantas, a record level of point redemptions through the Qantas Wine shop and its other on-the-ground retail businesses helped generate a positive A$1b (US$726m) cash contribution from the airline’s loyalty segment to its overall results during the 2021 fiscal year that ended in June. The airline even added 200,000 new loyalty members during the year. While not enough to push the airline into the black — it lost A$2.4b — loyalty cash flows helped staunch the red ink. This year was something of a roller coaster for Qantas. With nearly all of its international flying grounded amid strict Australian border restrictions, it relied on its domestic segment — including Qantas, QantasLink and JetStar Airways — during the year. At the peak it flew 92% of pre-crisis domestic capacity before new lockdowns forced it to par back schedules since June. Qantas plans to fly just 38% of 2019 domestic capacity during the September quarter.<br/>
In the days after releasing a tear-jerking pro-vax ad that caught the nation’s attention, Qantas has revealed why some of its own executives have been looking rather teary of late. The airline’s financial results on Thursday revealed a $1.7b loss in market conditions that CE Alan Joyce described as “diabolical”. Later in the day, company representatives revealed that it wasn’t just shareholders taking a hit. While the airline will make us wait until September for the full executive pay breakdown, company reps revealed that pay for senior executives over the past financial year was down 70% on pre-pandemic levels and annual bonuses had been cancelled again. The board took reduced fees while some members of the executive team accepted payment in Qantas shares rather than cash. It’s a similar story to last year when Joyce took home $1.7m as a total package, compared with $9.9m the previous year and $24m in the 2016-2017 financial year when he was the country’s highest-paid executive. Last year, the bulk of Qantas’ executive team still collected half of their long-term equity bonuses - given to them in shares worth a total of $1.2m. At the time, the company reasoned that, while the share price was down 44% in the year and 32% down over three years, it had still performed better than a group of 18 comparable listed airlines. But Joyce drew the line at taking the incentive, putting off the decision on whether to accept the shares worth $1.3m for another year. But now, that year is almost up and D-Day is approaching for Joyce to announce his decision to collect or not. <br/>