Airlines ended the traditional summer travel season on a high note, but hopes for the fall have dimmed as employers delay office reopenings and the Delta variant of the coronavirus has eroded sales and driven up cancellations in recent weeks. United said in a securities filing on Thursday that it no longer expected to turn a profit, before taxes, for the three months ending in September and that revenue would probably be down about a third from the same period in 2019. Nevertheless, the airline said it expected to reap previously predicted cost savings. Delta appeared to be in a stronger position. The airline said in a filing that it still expected a pretax profit for the quarter, but that revenue would probably be at the lower end of a forecast it made earlier this summer. Costs were at the higher end of expectations as Delta staffed up to keep operations running smoothly through the rebound. “The story for the quarter really has been about the amazing surge in demand that we’ve witnessed,” Ed Bastian, Delta’s CE, said at a Thursday conference hosted by Cowen, an investment bank. Both United and Delta said they expected to see the recovery resume once virus cases peaked, with Bastian adding that the airline was already seeing a rebound in the South, where infections began rising sharply in the summer. United and Southwest Airlines said in filings that the latest wave of infections had less of an effect on the business than previous jumps in coronavirus cases.<br/>
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The US DoT said Thursday it has 18 pending investigations against airlines over complaints that they failed to provide timely refunds during the COVID-19 pandemic. The department said in a report to the White House it was still reviewing 30,100 complaints involving 18 airlines out of 20 investigations it had initially opened. It did not name the airlines. “The department has devoted considerable time, energy, and effort to securing relief for consumers and holding airlines accountable,” it said in the report. The department noted it had concluded investigations into complaints involving Air Canada and United. In June, the department said it was seeking a $25.5m fine from Air Canada over the carrier’s failure to provide timely refunds to thousands of consumers who requested them for flights to or from the United States. Air Canada has urged the department to dismiss the complaint saying the department’s “arbitrary conduct flatly contradicts years of well-established law.” The department said on Thursday that settlement negotiations with Air Canada “are continuing.” Air Canada did not immediately comment. In June, the Transportation Department said it was investigating the refund practices of an undisclosed number of US and foreign carriers flying to and from the United States and would take “enforcement action” as appropriate. In January, the department ended its probe into United after the carrier “took prompt corrective actions, resulting in thousands of passengers who had initially been denied refunds receiving the required refunds in or around June 2020.”<br/>
Greece’s largest carrier Aegean Airlines said on Thursday its passenger numbers rose 70% in July and August compared to the same period in 2020 as tourism rebounded after last year’s slump. Aegean, a member of the Star Alliance airline group, said the rise in passengers improved its load factor to 71.7% but it remained lower than the 82.7% level it reached in 2019, a record year for tourism in Greece, before the outbreak of the pandemic. The airline said it flew more than 2.3m passengers in the July-August period, meaning the number topped the entire passenger traffic of the previous six months. Passenger traffic on flights abroad jumped 108% compared to the same months last year, reaching 1.2m passengers.<br/>
Malaysian aviation regulators have cleared the merger between Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, becoming the latest in a growing list of regulators around the world to grant approval. In a final decision released on 9 September, the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) reiterated the point that the merger would not infringe local competition laws, and was unlikely to have “any unilateral effects or act as a barrier to entry and expansion for the related markets”. It also accepted Asiana’s “failing firm defence”, in which it notes that the Star Alliance carrier was struggling financially, and “cannot be rehabilitated but for the anticipated merger”. Mavcom scoped its analysis to one route between Malaysia and South Korea — Seoul-Kota Kinabalu — given that both Korean Air sister company Jin Air and Asiana low-cost arm Air Seoul operate the route. Jeju Air, which is unaffiliated to the merger, is the third carrier to fly between both cities. Mavcom’s decision — the first competition-related merger case reviewed by a Malaysian regulator — means Korean Air is one step closer to completing the merger with its compatriot and one-time rival Asiana. <br/>
The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board has opened investigations into a tailstrike incident involving an Airbus A321ceo operated by EVA Air. The aircraft was landing at Guam airport 16:04 local time, after a charter flight from Taipei. TTSB investigators state that the aircraft had aborted landing once and was landing the second time when the tailstrike occured. Investigators note that the aircraft suffered “friction marks” nine inches wide and 50 inches long, though no injuries were reported among the 11 crew members and 147 passengers. The TTSB has classified the incident as serious. <br/>