unaligned

The reopening of the United States to British travellers will help all airlines operating between the two countries, but for UK-based trans-Atlantic-focused Virgin Atlantic, it means "the world", its CE said. "Virgin would not be Virgin without the Atlantic," CEO Shai Weiss said. "This is the market that is at the heart of everything that we do." Virgin Atlantic, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, is 51% owned by Branson's Virgin Group with the balance held by Delta. In 2020, it came close to collapse as COVID-19 travel bans hammered business. Pre-pandemic it had depended on trans-Atlantic travel for as much as 70% of its revenues. The last of those bans ends on Monday when the United States reopens for fully vaccinated UK travellers. Since August, Virgin has also benefited from the UK opening to vaccinated US citizens. Weiss said that he was very pleased with ticket sales to the United States, adding that there was strong demand for the Thanksgiving holidays and the lead-up to Christmas.<br/>

Norwegian airline Flyr, which launched its first flight in late June, earned far less revenue than expected in the third quarter and now plans to raise more cash, the carrier said on Monday, triggering a sharp fall in its shares. The company is one of several upstarts hoping to take a bite here out of the Nordic market for air travel, which is dominated by regional airlines SAS and Norwegian Air. Flyr’s revenues amounted to 39.6m Norwegian crowns ($4.6m) in the July-September period, with a loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 142.8m, the company said. “While revenues in August and September were significantly lower than expected due to the general delay in the demand growth that was caused by the Covid-19 Delta variant, there has been a substantial pick up in travel activity since the reopening of society,” Flyr said. Flyr has secured commitments from new and existing investors for a share sale amounting to 250m crowns, with board Chairman Erik Braathen among the underwriters, it said. “The net proceeds from the rights issue will be used to re-establish the company’s financial buffer for the period until the company becomes cash-flow positive and for general corporate purposes,” it said.<br/>

London Gatwick airport and discount carrier Wizz Air Holdings Plc joined forces to demand that Britain force airlines to surrender more unused operating slots next summer. The pair have written to UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps urging him to back a return to an 80% use-them-or-lose-them threshold in a consultation document expected in coming days. Regulations for the current winter schedule, introduced to shield airlines whose services have been hit by the coronavirus crisis, allows incumbents to temporarily return any operating slots they don’t need and pick them up the following year, and to use only 50% of those that remain. Gatwick says the rule has left its runway underused, with British Airways mothballing short-haul routes, Virgin Atlantic halting long-haul flights and Norwegian Air Shuttle retaining slots from a defunct North Atlantic arm. Wizz wants to establish a major hub at Gatwick to compete with EasyJet Plc there, but says it won’t do so only to be stripped of slots later. Edinburgh and Belfast International airports also signed the letter, according to a statement Tuesday. “The continued use of the waiver would result in most airlines continuing to under-deliver on capacity, whilst deliberately hoarding slots to protect their market position,” the letter says. “This would significantly harm competition by acting as an intentional barrier preventing other carriers, including new market entrants, from flying these slots instead.”<br/>

Ariana Afghan Airlines is due to begin regular flights from Kabul to Dubai on Monday, reopening a heavily used international route that had been suspended since the Taliban victory over the Western-backed government in August. Ariana will operate daily flights, charging $550 for a one-way ticket, the state-run airline said on its Facebook page. A spokesman said there had been heavy demand for tickets on the first flight, which was due to depart at 4.30 p.m. local time on Monday (1200 GMT). Dubai will be the only international destination offered by Ariana for the time being. Some charter services have been flying to Kabul since the militant Islamist Taliban takeover but normally scheduled commercial flights have remained suspended. Pakistan International Airlines suspended its charter service to Kabul from Islamabad last month, citing interference from Taliban authorities, who had warned the airline it should cut its ticket prices.<br/>

AirAsia Group Bhd's logistics arm Teleport is aiming to expand its fleet of cargo planes but that may not involve tapping into its parent's large order for Airbus A321neos, Teleport's CE said Monday. Pete Chareonwongsak backed away from comments he made last week that Teleport would look to convert a "meaningful chunk" of AirAsia's orders for 362 A321neo passenger planes to a potential newly built freighter model of the A321neo. "All I was saying was, if (Teleport is) successful, we're talking about large orders in magnitude of freighters," Chareonwongsak said. "Obviously, AirAsia gives us a huge advantage, but that doesn't automatically mean that we can or we're able to source freighters from AirAsia." Teleport will look at freighters converted from passenger planes like a Boeing 737-800 it inducted last week as well as newly built freighters to grow its fleet, he said. Airbus has not announced the development of a freighter model of the A321neo and it faces little or no pressure to win freighter sales to boost the model's production, industry sources said.<br/>