Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford sees no urgency for the regional carrier to return to the public markets despite growing pressure among the privately held carrier’s shareholders. “We have some shareholders that would like us to get back into public markets,” Bedford said Monday. Despite this, he said an IPO is “not a priority” four years after the Indianapolis-based carrier was delisted from the Nasdaq. Bedford’s comments come after the successful public debuts of US carriers Frontier Airlines and Sun Country Airlines earlier this year. And in June, Bloomberg reported that Republic was working with Raymond James Financial on a possible IPO. Republic was publicly traded until it emerged from its US Chapter 11 reorganization in 2017. As part of that exit, partners American Airlines and United took equity stakes of 25% and 19%, respectively, in the carrier. Bedford did not say whether American or United were among the shareholders that would like Republic to go public. Aside from the IPO pressures, Republic’s future appears bright. The carrier did not lose its mainline contracts early in the pandemic and close its doors like Compass Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines and Trans States Airlines. Though Bedford did call the mainline carriers — American, Delta Air Lines and United — on which it relies on for its business “benevolent dictators”.<br/>
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A tiny startup is expanding its semiprivate flight services in Texas, an incursion on the home turf of industry behemoth Southwest that targets business travelers in three of the state’s largest cities. JSX begins service to Austin, Texas, from Dallas Love Field on Monday while doubling its Houston service to four daily flights. The carrier boards at the same areas as private-jet operators, bypassing congested main terminals and time-consuming security queues. Its Texas fares begin at $129 each way and rise based on demand, but typically remain under $400. The business caters to wealthy urbanites who want something better than the cattle-car experience of major airlines but can’t afford the opulence of a private jet. JSX is one of several startups looking to fill that gap in the market. Aero Technologies, a San Francisco startup from Uber Technologies co-founder Garrett Camp, sells jet flights in the US to leisure destinations such as Las Vegas and Aspen, Colorado, and in Europe from cities such as London and Nice, France. From Los Angeles, Aero charges $950 for flights to Las Vegas and $1,600 to Aspen. Blade Urban Air Mobility, which began in 2014 to shuttle affluent New Yorkers between the city and the Hamptons by helicopter, has expanded to sell flights to Aspen from New York and Los Angeles, as well as between New York and South Florida.<br/>
Emirates is aiming to have more than 50 of its Airbus A380s in service by the end of the year, under plans to restore 70% of its overall pre-crisis capacity. The Middle Eastern carrier made the projection on 27 September as it announced an expanded list of destinations to be served by the superjumbo during October and November. “The airline is gradually and responsibly deploying its popular aircraft in sync with passenger demand as the travel industry continues on its path to recovery,” Emirates states. The Dubai-based airline expects to have 118 A380s in its fleet by year-end, it says, meaning it would still be operating less than half its examples of the type unless it reaches at least 59 in service at that point. The carrier has 39 of its 119 A380s in service today, according to Cirium fleets data, alongside all but one of its 144 Boeing 777 jets. Emirates announced earlier in September that it was accelerating deliveries of its final three A380s – bringing to six the number of A380s equipped with its new premium-economy cabin in a four-class layout – with the last example set to arrive in November. At the same time, the carrier is beginning to retire some of its older examples of the superjumbo, which is why its fleet size could fall slightly by the end of 2021.<br/>
China's HNA Group will receive strategic investment of 38b yuan ($5.88b) after its restructuring, which will go to eleven of its entities including its flagship carrier Hainan Airlines, two sources said Monday. Gu Gang, the group's party secretary and leader of the government-led working group addressing HNA's liquidity issues, disclosed the investment at a meeting of its creditors, the two sources who were familiar with the meeting's discussions said. He did not elaborate on where the investment was coming from but said about 25 billion yuan of the strategic investment would go to Hainan Airlines to replenish its cashflow, they said, asking not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the press. Reuters reported earlier that the meeting was planned for Monday and that HNA would reorganise the 11 entities as one group. read more Hainan Airlines said in a separate statement on Monday that it would use funds from strategic investors and future operating income to repay the debts of the airline and of the other 10 entities.<br/>
AirAsia X Group has posted an operating loss of MYR24.5b ($5.85b) for the quarter ended 30 June, widening significantly from a loss of MYR323m in the year-ago period. The group’s revenue fell 21% at MYR72.3m, the group says in its unaudited financial results disclosed to Bursa Malaysia on 27 September. The bulk of revenue for the quarter came from freight services, at MYR40.7m, followed by aircraft operating lease income at 23.5m and MYR8m from charter flights. It posted zero revenue from scheduled flights and ancillaries. The Malaysia-based long-haul, low-cost carrier says net operating loss for the quarter also widened to MYR24.6b from MYR305m loss in the year-ago quarter. The group’s cash and cash equivalents fell further to MYR68.5m as on 30 June from MYR308m at the beginning of the period. AirAsia X’s Malaysian unit posted an operating loss of MYR24.5b during the quarter, while the unit’s revenue stood at MYR72.3m. Its Thai unit’s operating loss was at MYR152m while revenue was at MY94.4m. Its Indonesian subsidiary recorded an operating loss of MYR1.08m, having posted zero revenue for the quarter.<br/>
India's low-cost airline SpiceJet is all set to resume Boeing-B-737 Max aircraft from the first week of October after a two-and-a-half-year long ban. "SpiceJet's Max aircraft will be back in operation from October 5, 2021 when it operates its first flight after a break of around two-and-a-half years," a SpiceJet official told ANI. Recently, India's aviation regulator Director General of Civil of Aviation (DGCA) has given permission to restart the B-737 Max aircraft in Indian skies. The airline company has sent about 20 pilots for simulator compulsory training before resuming operations of Max airplanes. Aviation industry sources confirmed to ANI that SpiceJet's pilots are currently undergoing training in the NCR region. "The first batch of 20 SpiceJet pilots are doing their training now and will complete it by September 30 this year. The training was held at the SpiceJet Training Academy in Gurugram and at the Boeing Simulator facility in Noida," a SpiceJet official said. Boeing has set up a 'Full Flight Simulator' for the 737 Max in Noida. As per the available data with the regulators regarding the maximum number of aircraft pilots in SpiceJet, "SpiceJet had more than 350 pilots who were trained/qualified on the Max at the time when the aircraft was grounded," the SpiceJet official said. SpiceJet is confident about the Max aircraft operations and is likely to send more pilots for training in the coming weeks. SpiceJet had flown around 6,300 hours on the 737 Max before the aircraft was grounded in March 2019.<br/>