AerCap has signed agreements to lease 20 new Airbus A320neo aircraft to US carrier Spirit Airlines. Deliveries of these aircraft are scheduled to begin in 2022, continuing through 2023 and 2024, the Irish lessor says. The new agreements further the carrier’s longstanding, strategic partnership with AerCap, says Spirit’s vice-president and treasurer Simon Gore. Gore adds: “These 20 new aircraft help us achieve our previously announced capacity plans for 2022 and 2023 and our targeted growth in 2024, as we continue our mission of delivering More Go and providing the best value in the sky.”<br/>
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Aer Lingus is still in talks with the country's sovereign wealth fund about a possible additional loan to help it with the impact of COVID-19, the head of the agency that runs the fund said on Thursday. The airline, which is part of the International Airlines Group alongside British Airways and Iberia, in June said it was in talks about a possible loan of a few hundred million euros in additional liquidity. "We lent Aer Lingus E150m... and we are in discussions with Aer Lingus to see if they would need any further assistance, which we may be able to help them with," Conor O'Kelly, head of the National Treasury Management Agency said of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund's talks.<br/>
Norwegian has declared that Norway is “opening up” with the government’s recent removal of pandemic control measures on travel, prompting the recovering carrier to reopen its bases at Bergen, Stavanger, and Trondheim. The airline said it had experienced a steady rise in demand for flights since May, and now that Norwegians are no longer discouraged from travelling to other countries as long as they hold a vaccine pass and follow their destination country’s restrictions, the company claimed to have seen “a very large increase in ticket sales,” leading to the bases reopening. Norwegian had seen little or no activity at the bases since it parked virtually all of its aircraft in March 2020. The bases were later formally closed on November 10. From Bergen the airline currently flies to 13 destinations, five of them within Norway including Stavanger (22x weekly) and Trondheim (17x weekly) themselves. It links Stavanger with five destinations, two of them within Norway, and Trondheim with four destinations, two within Norway. The base reopenings mean that a total of 112 pilots and 165 cabin crew will be able to return to work, spokeswoman Eline Skari Hyggen said, and the plan is to increase the number of cabin crew based at Stavanger.<br/>
Saudi Arabia's domestic air travel market is witnessing a sharp recovery, with passenger numbers now close to pre-pandemic levels, said the CE of state-owned budget carrier flyadeal on Thursday. The kingdom, with a population of about 30 million, is by far the largest domestic air travel market in the Gulf, where most countries are small and only have international services. "The domestic market is pretty much not far off being back to 100%. It's around the 90% mark," Con Korfiatis said. Flyadeal, a subsidiary of state carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines, resumed flights within Saudi Arabia in late May 2020 after services were suspended that March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and had itself returned to full capacity by October. The airline is now operating 19 domestic routes to 14 cities, and has one international service from Riyadh to Dubai.<br/>
Thai Lion Air is adding more aircraft to its fleet this year as it gears up for international air travel while the country prepares for further reopening. TLA CE Aswin Yangkirativorn said the fleet expansion plan will serve international flights in the near future which still currently depend on bilateral agreements on air travel led by government initiatives. The airline recently received two Airbus A320neo aircraft which saw the number of aircraft in the fleet reach 10, and it is planning to obtain two more Boeing 737 aircraft within this year. He said people in China, one of the airline's key source markets which contributed 60% prior to the pandemic, might not be able to travel overseas until the middle of next year, while the Chinese government focuses on domestic tourism. TLA has to focus on regional markets including India, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore which show more promising signs in terms of reconnecting with Thailand.<br/>