Regional affiliates of American Airlines and United are taking drastic measures to attract pilots amid an increasingly dire pilot shortage in the US. A shortage that has prompted United to cut service to at least nine smaller cities and may limit the recovery — and growth — of the industry next year. “Given all the accelerated [pilot] retirements that happened during Covid, and the fact that most airlines — including us — are growing a lot on the other side, the pilot shortage is now real,” United CEO Scott Kirby said Wednesday. “We don’t have enough pilots to fly all the airplanes. So the 50-seaters are at the bottom of that pile, and markets that rely on 50-seaters are the ones that are going to lose service.” The Chicago-based carrier has already confirmed that it will exit nine smaller cities — or 11 if you count the loss of US Essential Air Service contracts — almost exclusively served by 50-seat regional jets, including Bombardier CRJ200s and Embraer ERJ-145s. Cities losing United service include College Station, Texas; Evansville, Ind.; Lansing, Mich.; and Wausau, Wis. “While there is no shortage of people who want to be pilots — we have had to put some incentives in place for regional pilots,” American CEO Doug Parker said at the forum. While he did not go as far as Kirby as saying there was a pilot shortage, the fact that American is offering incentives to attract crews to its regional affiliates that operate American Eagle flights is indicative of hiring challenges. United Senior Vice President of Domestic Planning and United Express Ankit Gupta is still optimistic about next summer. He does not expect staffing to limit the airline’s ability to recover to 2019 capacity levels. But what Gupta did not say was that it is easy to recover top line available seat miles when more, larger mainline jets are added — United plans to take delivery of 48 new Boeing 737 Maxes in 2022 — even as 50-seat models are removed. “I’m really excited about … getting back to 2019 [flying] levels but with better product and better planes,” said Gupta on United’s Summer 2022 schedule. “Just getting rid of those single-cabin 50-seaters, especially in markets where they should not be flying — [I’m] really excited about that.”<br/>
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United Airlines will restart non-stop flights to Singapore in January under the city state’s Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme, as it hints at more codeshares with Singapore Airlines. The four-times-weekly VTL service from San Francisco will be operated with Boeing 787-9s from 9 January, says United. The airline formerly operated twice-daily flights between both cities, but stopped these in March 2020 owing to the coronavirus pandemic. The carrier’s launch of the service makes it the second carrier to operate VTL flights between the two countries after SIA. The VTL scheme allows vaccinated travellers to fly to Singapore and not serve quarantine. United also states that is “strengthening” its relationship with fellow Star Alliance member SIA, “which will provide codeshare connections to/from United’s services in the future.” In early November, it emerged that SIA and United had signed a memorandum of understanding about working more closely together, although neither airline provided details. Traditionally, the two carriers have not worked very closely together. For now, cooperation is limited to SIA placing its code on just eight United domestic flights from Houston, Texas – a city Singapore formerly served via Manchester.<br/>
US officials warned pilots and operators to exercise caution while flying below 29,000 feet in Ethiopian airspace due to ongoing clashes between opposition groups and military forces. “Civil aircraft may be directly or indirectly exposed to ground weapons fire and/or surface-to-air fire due to misidentification and/or miscalculation in such areas,” the US FAA said in an advisory note forwarded to Bloomberg via email. Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier, has built the capital Addis Ababa into a regional transport hub over the past decade. The city is a frequent stop off point for trips to several destinations around the continent. The yearlong conflict in Ethiopia has claimed thousands of lives, displaced hundred of thousands and millions in need of aid. <br/>
South African investigators are probing a wing-tip strike by an Airbus A350-900 during a crosswind landing at Johannesburg earlier this month. The Ethiopian Airlines twinjet had been arriving from Addis Ababa on 6 November. It was conducting an approach to Johannesburg’s runway 03R and experienced a “strong crosswind”, says French investigation authority BEA, citing South African counterparts. “The aircraft made contact with the runway surface on its right-hand wing-tip,” it adds. None of the occupants was injured. The extent of damage sustained by the aircraft, says BEA, is unknown.<br/>
Copa Holdings, parent of Panama’s Copa Airlines, expects to restore the carrier’s full network next year as more countries discard coronavirus-driven travel restrictions and vaccination rates across Latin America inspire customers to travel. The Panama City-based airline says on 17 November that revenue during the 2021 Q3 was $445m, 37% less than during the same period in 2019, but more than the $304m the company reported in the second quarter. The revenue rise was “mainly driven by passenger revenue”, Copa says. Its net profit fell to $8.2m, down from $104m in the same three months of 2019.“Improvements in vaccination rates and reduced travel restrictions in Latin America have positively impacted international travel demand in the region, allowing the company to deploy additional capacity quarter-over-quarter while improving load factors,” CE Pedro Heilbron says on the company’s earnings call on 18 November. “Although most countries continue to have travel restrictions and/or health requirements, downward trends in Covid-19 cases have led to a relaxation of these measures, which we expect should help to further increase air travel demand,” he adds. Copa’s capacity during the three months ending on 30 September was 49% more than in the second quarter of the year, reaching 70% of pre-pandemic levels. Heilbron says that number will continue to rise.<br/>
Lufthansa Group carrier Brussels Airlines has unveiled a new colour scheme and logo as it embarks on the post-crisis recovery track. The Belgian airline says the livery is a “visual token” of its “new chapter”. Brussels Airlines has opted for a largely white fuselage, dropping the dark blue vertical fin. The carrier has shown off the colours on an Airbus A319. It has retained the characteristic red spots but, instead of a representation of the lower-case ‘b’, the spots are differently-sized and form a square pattern. Brussels Airlines says this new logo represents the “diversity” of its customers, destinations and employees. “No dot is alike,” it says. The ‘Brussels’ part of the carrier’s name has been given greater prominence in the design. Brussels Airlines states that it accelerated a restructuring and transformation plan last year, as a result of the crisis, and the changes will “clearly mark” its new phase of development into a “healthy, profitable airline”. “With this new brand identity, we are ready to show our customers, our employees, our partners and all other stakeholders that we are turning a page,” says CE Peter Gerber. “We see this new brand identity as a symbol of confidence in our company, re-emphasising our identity as Belgium’s home carrier.”<br/>
There will be six flights a day — operated by six carriers — between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur under the quarantine-free Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme. Providing details on the much-anticipated border reopening between the two neighbouring countries, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) says the first flight under the VTL arrangement will commence on 29 November. Under the VTL scheme, fully-vaccinated travellers do not need to serve quarantine upon arrival. They will, however, be required to test before departure and after arrival, and must travel on designated flights. Six carriers from both countries have been allocated one daily VTL flight each. They are: Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Jetstar Asia, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, as well as Malindo Air. SIA, in a separate statement, says it will be operating 10 weekly flights with its Airbus A350s, while its low-cost unit Scoot will fly four times a week between the two cities with its Boeing 787s. Malaysia Airlines, meanwhile, will operate daily flights with its Airbus A330 aircraft, a significant uplift in capacity compared to the Boeing 737-800s that it usually operated in pre-pandemic times. <br/>
Air New Zealand has reported a significant boost in traffic on its website after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Wednesday Auckland will soon be moving out of lockdown. Auckland has remained in strict lockdown since August, only seeing few restrictions ease due to high COVID-19 cases, but now is gearing up for reinstated freedoms. At a press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Ardern said from 15 December, people can travel out of Auckland who have been fully vaccinated or have received a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours before departure. Amid the announcement, the Auckland-based carrier said its website traffic jumped by 250%, seeing its peak at 1:15pm. “It’s no surprise that Kiwis are looking forward to a summer holiday with their friends and whānau, but we’ve been blown away by the demand,” said chief customer and sales officer at Air NZ, Leanne Geraghty. “We’ve had tens of thousands of bookings across the 20 destinations we fly to as Kiwis take advantage of the relaxed levels. We’re seeing huge demand out of Auckland – as Aucklanders look to reconnect with family and friends after an extended lockdown.”<br/>