Southwest has blamed air traffic control and weather as widespread flight cancellations and delays stretched into a fourth day, while its pilots union said the disruptions signalled how the airline’s overtaxed operations were buckling under stress. The Dallas airline cancelled 363 flights on Monday, 10% of its roster across the US, and delayed another 21 per cent. The disruptions contrasted sharply with operations at other big US carriers. American Airlines only had cancelled 1% of its flights on Monday and delayed 8 per cent, and United and Delta airlines did better. The disruptions were still an improvement from the weekend, when Southwest cancelled or delayed 59% of flights on Saturday and 62% on Sunday. American, by comparison, reported disruptions on 23% of US flights. “We could not anticipate the significant disruption that was created from unexpected [air traffic control] issues and bad weather across our Florida stations,” said Alan Kasher, Southwest’s executive vice-president of daily operations in a memo. “And as we’ve seen before, an unexpected number of delays ultimately leads to a staffing shortage.” A number of airlines — including American, Spirit, Allegiant and, in June, Southwest itself — left flyers scrambling at various points over the summer as they tried to keep up with a post-pandemic travel rebound in the early months of the peak season. Kasher said on Monday that the Dallas-based airline’s route schedule still had not fully recovered from capacity cuts made due to Covid-19, meaning “we still find ourselves with fewer frequencies between major airports to reroute delayed or cancelled customers”.<br/>
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Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said Tuesday he believes businesses should not impose Covid vaccine mandates on their employees, but he said his company is doing so to comply with federal rules put in place by the Biden administration. “I’ve never been in favor of corporations imposing that kind of a mandate. I’m not in favor of that. Never have been,” Kelly said. “But the executive order from President Biden mandates that all federal employees and then all federal contractors, which covers all the major airlines, have to have a [vaccine] mandate ... in place by Dec. 8, so we’re working through that.”Southwest said last week that its 56,000 employees needed to be vaccinated against Covid by Dec. 8 in order to keep working at the airline under the federal mandate. Southwest’s announcement came a few days after other carriers — including American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways — informed employees about the need to adhere to federal vaccine rules. In August, before the Biden administration’s action, United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines instituted Covid vaccine requirements for their staffs. United said earlier this month that more than 96% of its 67,000 US employees have shared proof of vaccination after its late September deadline. Southwest started to offer incentives such as extra pay to spur uptake of the coronavirus vaccine in mid-September, following in the footsteps of other carriers such as Delta Air Lines, American and United. Delta later said that starting Nov. 1 unvaccinated workers would have to pay an extra $200 per month for company health insurance.<br/>
Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol expects to report third-quarter net operating revenue down 50% from the same period of pre-pandemic 2019. Gol projects that it generated R$1.8b ($325m) in the quarter. Additionally, the carrier estimates in an 11 October investor update that it operated 84% of the routes it had operated in the third quarter of 2019, with an average load factor of 82%. The carrier had R$1.8b in liquidity at the end of the September 2021. “Including the financeable amounts of deposits, Gol’s liquidity sources total approximately R$3.8b,” Gol states. “This is consistent with the company’s liquidity levels throughout the pandemic.” Gol’s finance chief Richard Lark states: “Our focus heading into [the fourth quarter] is on diligently matching our capacity to rising demand in the business travel segment, as well as leisure travel in advance of the holiday season, increasing seat inventory for Black Friday sales and the return of international routes to Punta Cana, Cancun and Montevideo.” Daily new cases of Covid-19 in Brazil have been declining steeply since late June amid the rapid vaccination of the population in that country. T<br/>
Norwegian start-up Flyr has signed a letter of intent to lease six new Boeing 737-8 aircraft from US lessor Air Lease next year. The first aircraft will be delivered early next year and the carrier aims have all six aircraft in service during the first half of 2022. Flyr has also taken options on four more aircraft for delivery in 2023. “The decision to choose the latest generation of brand-new Boeing aircraft is in line with the authorities’ goal of a more sustainable development in aviation,” Flyr CE Tonje Wikstrom Frislid says. Flyr launched flights at the end of June, initially on domestic flights, using a Boeing 737-800. The airline in August launched its first interrnational flights, serving Alicante, Nice and Malaga.<br/>
EasyJet declared the recovery in aviation “is under way” as it forecast its second consecutive £1bn annual loss. The British low-cost airline on Tuesday said there had been strong demand for flying since the UK relaxed strict travel rules last month. The recovery is a big relief for the carrier after it predicted a loss of between GBP1.135b and GBP1.175b for its financial year ending in September, its second on record after losing more than GBP1b in 2020. EasyJet plans to fly 70% of its 2019 levels in the final quarter of the year, up from the 60% it had previously forecast as demand for winter sun destinations helped it add 100,000 seats to its schedules. “It is clear the recovery is under way and easyJet is trying to seize opportunities as we emerge from the pandemic,” said CE Johan Lundgren, pointing to signs of the return of business travel and overall bookings for the next six months that have been running at double the level of last year. “We have seen city breaks beginning to return alongside growing demand for leisure travel from customers looking for flights and holidays to popular winter sun destinations,” he added. Alex Irving, an aviation analyst at Bernstein, said the increased capacity forecast “bodes well for the winter season”. The Luton-based airline had rejected a takeover approach from Hungarian rival Wizz Air, the first sign of potential consolidation in an industry that has been rocked by the pandemic and travel restrictions.<br/>
Wizz Air Holdings CEO Jozsef Varadi said he’s prepared to embrace acquisitions should a compelling deal emerge as travel rebounds from coronavirus lockdowns. Varadi declined to comment on the fast-growing discount carrier’s reported approach for EasyJet last month. While any takeover would need to maintain Wizz’s cost discipline, the Budapest-based company is “not resistant” to M&A, the CEO said.“Given our low-cost business model we are not a natural consolidator and it doesn’t come to us intuitively, but that’s not to say that we won’t be looking at opportunities as they arise,” the CEO said Tuesday. EasyJet said last month that it rejected a buyout approach from an unnamed suitor -- Wizz, according to people familiar with the matter -- as too low. Analysts said a deal would make sense, with the UK carrier’s strength in Western Europe complementing Wizz to the east. While Wizz isn’t set up for consolidation like diversified network carriers such as IAG, it’s considered around 20 potential deals over a decade or more, Varadi said. “We are not blind when it comes to how the market is going,” he said.<br/>
El Al is facing industrial action after being accused of acting in bad faith, notably over policies restricting operation of flights during the Sabbath, a weekly period of religious observance. Trade union centre Histadrut has notified the company of a labour dispute and approved strike from 18 October. El Al says the dispute concerns job security in the wake of decisions to reduce cargo flights and services of leisure airline Sun D’Or on the Sabbath. It adds that it stands accused by Histadrut of “conduct in bad faith”. Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David has written to El Al’s management, stating that he has “personally led unprecedented actions in order to save El Al” and strengthen the airline in the face of the air transport crisis – including transferring over 10 million shekels ($3.1m) to support the carrier. Bar-David says there are “real doubts” over the company’s efforts to take a leading position in the recovering – and competitive – market.<br/>
AirAsia sees brighter skies ahead after Malaysia lifted interstate travel restrictions, with the low-cost carrier also pushing to restart international flights to Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives as early as next week, its president told Nikkei Asia. Bo Lingam, AirAsia Group's president for airline operations, said Monday that the company is "very relieved" with the government's decision to reopen domestic borders as it will benefit both the carrier and its workforce. The airline aims to go big on domestic travel by reaching a pre-pandemic capacity of 39 local routes and 169 daily flights by late November, according to Bo. "We will open all domestic destinations that we were flying pre-COVID by the end of next month, involving over 45 aircraft," he said. The comments came after the federal government on Monday allowed interstate travel nationwide. The airline was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with hundreds of its employees retrenched and aircraft idled after domestic and international borders were closed and travel limited. The government of PM Ismail Sabri fully reopened state borders in the Southeast Asian country for the first time this year, allowing millions of residents to travel for business and leisure. Fully vaccinated Malaysians can also head overseas without police approval.<br/>