Sun Country Airlines benefited from rebounding leisure traffic during Q3 2021, ending the period with a small profit. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-headquartered low-cost carrier says on 1 November its profit for the quarter was $13.9m, on quarterly revenue of $174m. That is more than double last year’s $78m in revenue during the same three months that ended on 30 September, and marginally higher than in the same quarter in 2019. “We had a great third quarter,” says CE Jude Bricker. “We posted our highest adjusted operating margin, adjusted pre-tax margin and adjusted net income since the first quarter of 2019.” Sun Country’s available seat miles increased 7% over the previous quarter but remain 16% lower than in the third quarter of 2019, amid “unpredictability of the demand environment”. The airline conducts scheduled flights and has sizeable charter and cargo businesses.<br/>
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Ryanair reported its first quarterly profit since before the onset of COVID-19, but said it expects to post an annual loss of up to E200m as it would be forced to discount tickets to fill its planes over the winter. The Irish airline, which operated more flights this summer than its European rivals, reported on Monday an after-tax loss of E48m for the six months to September. A company poll of analysts had forecast a loss of E43m. While it did not break out its after-tax profit for the three months ended September, its Q2, the E273m loss it reported in Q1 implies a Q2 profit of E225m. That marks its first quarterly profit since October-December, 2019 - before the pandemic disrupted travel. The budget airline, Europe’s largest, carried 39.1m passengers in the six months ended September, 54% fewer than in the same period of 2019. Ryanair is expected to turn in a loss of between E100m and E200m for the financial year, which ends on March 31, Group CE Michael O’Leary said, adding that there was extremely little visibility. O’Leary, who has said the pandemic offers the best growth opportunities of his three-decade career, in September lifted the Ryanair’s five-year growth target to fly 225 passengers a year by 2026, from 200m previously forecast. Ryanair nudged up its passenger target for its financial year to March 2022 to “just over” 100m. It flew 149m passengers a year before the pandemic.<br/>
Ryanair will pull its share listing from the London Stock Exchange in the next six months because of Brexit, as the airline made a quarterly profit for the first time since 2019. The Irish carrier has pulled voting rights from non-EU shareholders but because of foreign ownership and control rules said it needed to deter UK investors. It reported on Monday an after-tax loss of E48m for the six months to September, broadly in line with expectations, pointing to a Q2 profit of E225m after a E273m loss reported for the first three months of the 2021-22 financial year. Despite its first positive results since the onset of Covid-19, Ryanair said it expected an annual loss of up to E200m given the extent of discounting on fares needed to fill its planes over the winter. Its CE, Michael O’Leary, said planes had been “full to the gills with families” in October half-term, boosted by Covid passes smoothing intra-EU travel. O’Leary said that the airline would need to delist from London in 2022 under foreign ownership rules. He said: “We’ve removed voting rights from all non-EU shareholders post-Brexit, so we’re 100% EU-controlled. About 45% of our shares are held in America. We need to ensure the balance is held by EU nationals – that means, unfortunately, discouraging UK shareholders. “Part of that process will be inevitably delisting from the London Stock Exchange in the next six months.” He said most shares would be traded in Dublin and Brussels: “It’s sadly it’s an inevitable consequence of Brexit. It won’t fundamentally affect passengers … but increasingly we will want to have just European shareholders rather than UK shareholders.”<br/>
The boss of Ireland’s Ryanair on Monday ramped up a war of words with Boeing, calling the U.S. planemaker “delusionary” for imposing what he termed a double-digit percentage price hike for 737 MAX 10 jets in talks this year. CE Michael O’Leary also said Boeing needed to “get its shit together” after what he described as delays in the delivery of 65 jets from an existing MAX order, though he was “reasonably confident” they would arrive for the summer peak. A Boeing spokesperson said it was committed to supporting Ryanair as a long-standing partner, but added it would “continue to be disciplined” in commercial decisions. Industry sources blamed the delays on shipping problems for galleys linked to a worldwide logistics logjam. Europe’s largest low-cost carrier in September abruptly ended talks with the US planemaker over an order of 737 MAX 10 jets worth tens of billions of dollars because of differences over price. Speaking on Monday following the airline’s latest financial results, O’Leary said Boeing’s approach was “delusionary”. “Boeing out of the blue sought a ... substantial double-digit price increase. I don’t understand the strategy,” he said, before reiterating that Boeing badly needs Ryanair’s business. In a call with investors, O’Leary said he was having a “marital tantrum” with Boeing, Ryanair’s long-time sole supplier.<br/>
Emirates will hold talks with Boeing over the delays to its 777X jetliner before and during this month's Dubai Airshow, the state-owned airline's chairman said on Monday. The airline has repeatedly lambasted Boeing this year over the twin-engined jumbo, which is at least three years behind its originally planned arrival. Asked by Reuters if Emirates would hold talks with Boeing at the five day air show that starts November 14, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said: "There will be a discussion...before and during the air show." Emirates last month warned that the uncertainty would cause significant disruption for one of the world's biggest carriers, with its President Tim Clark saying then he did not know when the first of the 126 777X jets Emirates has ordered would arrive. Emirates is a launch customer for the 777X which it will use to replace the 777 jets that are the backbone of its all-wide-body fleet. Boeing had orginally planned to deliver the 777X in June 2020 but is now targeting late 2023. In April, Sheikh Ahmed said that some of the 126 777X jets ordered could be swapped for smaller Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Emirates already revised its order for the 777X in 2019, cancelling orders for 24 of the jets as part of a deal that saw it agree to buy 30 Dreamliners. Sheikh Ahmed, a senior member of the Dubai's ruling family, also told reporters at a Dubai news conference that he expected to see "good deals" for civil and military contracts announced at the air show, without disclosing details.<br/>
Dubai's Emirates, which championed the Airbus A380 as the backbone of a global airline network built around the Gulf, has begun stripping one of the four-engined behemoths for the first time as the superjumbo gives way to smaller and leaner models. The announcement on Monday comes just weeks before Emirates is due to take delivery of its last A380 from Airbus, bringing to an end an era in which the double-decker passenger jet dominated the airline's growth plans. The airline has salvaged engines, landing gears and flight control components from the 13-year-old jet that flew its first commercial flight from Dubai to New York in August 2008, it said. The A380 would now be stripped of parts to be transformed into furniture, memorabilia and other retail items to be sold and with a portion of proceeds to benefit the airline's charity that helps disadvantaged children. "It’s an elegant and fitting retirement solution for this iconic aircraft and our flagship," Emirates President Tim Clark said. With no major secondary market, Emirates was left with little choice but to strip the world's largest commercial passenger jet for parts that could be repurposed. Airbus ended production of the plane in 2019, 12 years after it started and after it was unable to secure a sustainable order book. Emirates was the largest customer of the A380 jet, having ordered 118 superjumbos, but its inability to reach a deal with engine makers on future orders spelled the end of the aircraft.The jet's decline also came before the COVID-19 pandemic that drove the airline industry into its worst ever crisis. Most airline executives expect it will take the industry several years to recover to pre-pandemic demand for air travel.<br/>
Kuwait's Jazeera Airways is in talks to buy 30 Airbus A320neo or Boeing 737 MAX jets in a deal worth up to $2b, the airline's chairman said on Monday. Marwan Boodai told Reuters the budget carrier expected to place the long-considered aircraft order by the end of March. The airline would seek to raise debt to finance part of the purchases, with the remaining to be funded from the company's own cash reserves, which currently stand at 41m Kuwaiti dinars ($136m), he said. The disclosure of jet order talks comes just two weeks before the start of the five day Dubai Airshow, which will be this year's biggest aerospace trade show and a spectacle for commercial and military contracts worth billions of dollars. Jazeera, majority owned by Boodai, has for many years mulled an aircraft order to expand and replace its fleet of leased narrow-body Airbus jets, though never placed an order. It currently operates a fleet of 17 Airbus A320 jets. The airline on Monday reported a Q3 net profit of 11.8m dinar ($39.15m), its first quarterly profit in two years, according to Refinitiv data. "We are positive that travel will return stronger to reach 2019 operational performance very soon ... We now believe the worst is behind us," Boodai said.<br/>
An El Al flight that took off from Thailand Monday on its way to Israel carried out a successful emergency landing with just one engine in Goa, India. The Boeing 787 plane left Bangkok and made a planned stop in Phuket before the pilot noticed that the fuel leak indicator light had turned on, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. The pilot then followed protocol, shutting off the affected engine and landing in the western Indian state of Goa. The Foreign Ministry got in touch with local authorities, allowing the passengers to spend the night at a nearby hotel after they each took PCR tests, as required in India. None of the passengers was injured as a result of the emergency landing. Crews testing the plane did not find any indication of a leak and were in discussions with the Boeing manufacturers to determine what caused the indicator light to go on.<br/>
Hainan Airlines Holdings has gained the crucial green light from a local court for its restructuring plan, which will see it merge with 11 smaller airlines into a single carrier. In giving its approval, the Hainan High People’s Court ruled on 31 October that restructuring “complies with…the principle of maximising creditors’ interests” and was a “feasible” option. The airlines approved to merge comprise flagship Hainan Airlines, as well as smaller units such as Fuzhou Airlines, Lucky Air, Air Changan, as well as Guangxi Beibu Gulf Airlines. The merger of the 11 entities into one carrier was first floated in September after a “comprehensive investigation” into parent conglomerate HNA Group and its wide-ranging and often-murky corporate structure. Restructuring managers found that the connected transactions between the 11 carriers were “complex”, and that the creditors were seeking large amounts of claims. Previous reports indicate that the airlines owe close to $82b to more than 4,900 creditors, according to the filing. <br/>