Breeze Airways, the new US carrier founded by entrepreneur David Neeleman, on Monday publicly unveiled an order for 20 more Airbus A220-330 aircraft as it looks to operate longer flights, confirming a Reuters report earlier this year. The order brings Breeze’s total A220 order to 80, making it the family’s second-biggest customer after Delta and leapfrogging Neeleman-backed JetBlue. Breeze is Neeleman’s fifth commercial airline and is injecting new competition into a battered airline market as US domestic travel recovers from the coronavirus crisis. It began operations in May using Embraer regional jets and plans to start using the new, Canadian-designed A220 on routes longer than two hours’ flight time from early 2022. “This just shows growth is on the way,” Neeleman said after confirming the purchase, which involved the exercising of purchase options. Reuters reported in April that Breeze had placed an order for 20 Airbus A220 jets, bringing its total to 80, but that the name of the buyer was being withheld - a common practise as airlines polish tightly held marketing plans.<br/>
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Southwest COO Mike Van de Ven was named president, effective immediately, replacing Tom Nealon, who chose to retire. Nealon’s departure comes less than three months after Southwest selected Executive Vice President Bob Jordan to replace Gary Kelly as CEO, starting Feb. 1. Nealon, 60, will remain a strategic adviser at airline, Southwest said Monday. A former Southwest board member, he rejoined the carrier in 2016 as executive vice president of strategy and innovation at the behest of Kelly. Van de Ven, 59, takes on additional responsibilities as Southwest seeks to recover from a tough summer in which a shortage of workers threw the airline’s schedule into turmoil, delaying more than 99,000 arrivals, and forced it to reduce flying starting this month. Pilots and flight attendants have complained about excessive overtime and arriving in cities to find they don’t have a hotel or food for the night. The carrier is adding 5,200 employees as a result. Nealon became president in 2017, taking charge of Southwest’s computer systems, as well as commercial and financial operations after a series of disruptions that stranded passengers. He later took on efforts to boost efficiency at airports, in flight operations and crew scheduling. Nealon was Southwest’s CIO from 2002 to 2006 and served on the board for five years starting in 2010. <br/>
Ask Icelandic startup Fly Play CEO Birgir Jónsson about comparisons between his carrier and defunct Wow Air and he’ll tell you he welcomes them. Wow, which shut down in March 2019, is remembered by many as the epitome of the overambitious budget carrier whose over-expansion led to its demise. “I am not ashamed or offended if someone compares us to Wow. I think, in many ways, that’s a great compliment,” Jónsson said. And the comparisons come in spades: Play was founded by a number of former Wow executives, including Jónsson himself, who was deputy CEO of Wow before its closure. Its business plan outlines the same volume business connecting budget-conscious travelers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean over a Reykjavík hub. And its fleet consists of the same Airbus A320neo-family jets. But that’s where Jónsson thinks Play is different. The carrier, which began flights in June, is taking the disciplined approach to the market that Wow did not. It plans to stick to A320neo and A321neo jets — none of Wow’s Airbus A330s — and focus on a flexible operation connecting major Eastern U.S. cities to Europe via Iceland, with the added benefit to Icelandic tourism to boot. And Play only targets a fleet of 15 aircraft by the end of 2025 — Wow’s peaked at 23 aircraft — with three A321neos already in its fleet and another six A320neo and A321neos under contract from lessors.<br/>
Wizz Air will reinstate pilots’ salaries to their pre-Covid levels from 1 October, and is launching a recruitment drive to bring in additional staff as it rebounds from the pandemic. The low-cost carrier enacted a temporary pay cut for pilots last year as it sought to slash costs as booking numbers collapsed, but a rapid rebound in activity is now leading the carrier to embark on its largest-ever recruitment drive. It is seeking 200 new pilots and 800 members of cabin crew by December. Over the next 10 years, it foresees a tripling of its fleet to more than 500 aircraft, growth that will require an average of 200 new recruits each year for a decade. “The recruitment drive follows a year of rapid expansion for Wizz Air, despite the challenges of the pandemic,” says the carrier. “Since March 2020, Wizz Air has added 18 new bases and over 300 new routes to its network, which spans Europe and beyond, and is now flying over 100% of pre-Covid capacity on over 1,000 routes to 197 destinations in 49 countries. “In the UK, Wizz Air has opened two new bases at Gatwick and Doncaster Sheffield, with its fourth base at Cardiff airport due to launch in summer 2022, demonstrating the airline’s commitment to the UK market and its strong foothold for further growth.”<br/>
SpiceJet said Monday it has settled with another lessor of Boeing's MAX aircraft, CDB Aviation, as it looks to start operating the aircraft by the end of September after India cleared the 737 MAX to fly last month. The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide in March 2019 after two fatal crashes in five months killed 346 people, plunging Boeing into a financial crisis, which has since been compounded by the pandemic. In August, India's air safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, said it cleared 737 MAX aircraft to fly with immediate effect, after nearly two-and-a-half years of regulatory grounding. SpiceJet said in August it expected the grounded 737 MAX jets in its fleet to return to service at the end of September after a settlement with lessor Avolon on leases of the aircraft. The lifting of the ban in India came months after the aircraft returned to service in the United States and Europe. More recently grounding orders were lifted in other countries, including Australia, Fiji, Japan and Malaysia. The resumption of MAX aircraft services would be subject to regulatory approvals, SpiceJet, India's second-largest airline by market share and the only one in the country to fly the aircraft, said.<br/>
Jet Airways will resume domestic operations by Q1 2022, an investor consortium, whose resolution plan was approved by India’s bankruptcy court earlier this year, said on Monday. Once India’s biggest private carrier, Jet stopped flying in April 2019 after running out of cash, owing billions to lenders and leaving thousands without jobs. The defunct airline had said in June that the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved a resolution plan submitted by a consortium of London-based Kalrock Capital and UAE-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan. The bankruptcy court’s go-ahead came several months after Jet’s creditors had given their approval in October last year to the resolution plan submitted by the consortium. “Jet Airways 2.0 aims at restarting domestic operations by Q1-2022, and short haul international operations by Q3/Q4 2022,” Murari Lal Jalan, Lead Member of the Jalan Kalrock Consortium and the proposed Non-Executive Chairman of Jet Airways said.<br/>
A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) passenger plane from Islamabad touched down in Kabul on Monday morning, according to an airline spokesman. This marks the first flight to land in Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan since the chaotic final withdrawal of US troops last month. PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan said in a statement that the service was a "special flight" to create "goodwill" with the people of Afghanistan and to "strengthen humanitarian efforts." The spokesman said this was "not an aid flight." PIA said the flight was handled by the Kabul airport staff and its flight name and number were posted on boards at the airport. It was not immediately clear whether it could be described as a "commercial" flight, however, as it is unclear whether people were actually able to buy tickets for the plane. PIA CEO Arshad Malik said the company will "hopefully" be able to restore full services soon. Along with two Qatar Airways passenger planes, both carrying more than 100 foreign nationals, that departed from Kabul and landed in Doha last week, this flight signals that at least some foreign nationals who want to leave Afghanistan will be able to do so, following weeks of uncertainty. <br/>
Nok Air has outlined plans for a capital and debt restructuring alongside its ongoing business rehabilitation process to improve its financial health and avoid being delisted from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). On 9 September, the SET warned Nok that it was subject to possible delisting and has given the airline one month until 8 October to set a timeline to implement its rehabilitation plan. In a 10 September disclosure to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the carrier outlined measures it said it would take to remedy its negative shareholder equity and return to profitability. The measures include the “improvement” of its fleet, including the types of aircraft it operates, to make it “suitable for current situation” and reduce costs, especially on fuel and maintenance. It adds that it will negotiate to “significantly” reduce both short- and long-term aircraft lease rental rates and amend lease agreements accordingly, as well as restructure debts with all groups of creditors. That process has already been underway since at least last month, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The carrier also indicates it will undertake organisational restructuring to be “effective and efficient”, as well as to “improve management direction and communication”.<br/>