Air Canada, which for a year publicly pressed the government to offer emergency financial help to the airline industry, said it no longer needs the bulk of a C$5.9b ($4.7b) package announced just seven months ago. The airline said Friday it’s withdrawing from the crisis arrangement after using some of the loans to refund tickets. It cited the travel recovery and improved liquidity. Almost C$4b worth of loan facilities went unused, though the government still holds a 6% equity stake it bought as part of the bailout structure. “We deeply appreciate the Government of Canada’s support as this helped maintain a level playing field at a time when governments around the world, recognizing the importance of air travel to their economies, were also assisting their national carriers in the face of the unprecedented downturn caused by Covid-19,” CEO Michael Rousseau said. Canada’s largest airline was a critic of PM Justin Trudeau’s government during the first year of the pandemic, saying the absence of a bailout combined with strict travel restrictions was putting the industry at a global disadvantage. In April, the two sides announced a deal for loans and equity, making the federal government an Air Canada shareholder for the first time since the 1980s. <br/>
star
Copa Airlines’ recovery happened faster than expected, especially given the Panamanian carrier has virtually no domestic routes. Visiting friends and relatives (VFR) and leisure traffic are fueling its climb out from the pandemic. The nature of its business has changed, however. CEO Pedro Heilbron observed that before the pandemic, VFR, leisure, and business travel each accounted for a third of Copa’s traffic. Now, VFR and leisure account for about 40% each, and business travel comprises just 20%. This appears unlikely to change in the near term. The carrier flew 70% of its pre-pandemic capacity in the third quarter and is planning to add more in the fourth quarter and Q1 of next year. It has maintained six flight banks at its hub at Panama City’s Tocumen Airport, which is unlikely to change, although Copa is operating fewer flights in each bank. “But of course, Covid has not gone away,” Heilbron said. Competition in the region is heating up, however, as carriers scramble to tap into demand to vacation hotspots in South America. “There’s quite a bit of action … especially from new entrants, or not new entrants but new entrants to the region,” Helibron said. <br/>
Dozens of people were stranded in Europe for a second night on Saturday after their U.S.-bound flight made an emergency landing in Dublin following an engine failure, passengers said. Brussels Airlines flight 101 was en route from Brussels to New York on Friday when pilots issued a "pan-pan" message, which indicates a problem less serious than a "mayday," when flying at 37,000 feet, aviation media and tracking websites said. Pilots of the 12-year-old Airbus A330-300 requested to divert to Shannon in western Ireland but switched to Dublin on instructions from the airline, according to Aviation Herald, an independent website which tracks airplane incidents. Lufthansa unit Brussels Airlines confirmed that the plane had diverted after an engine warning and said pilots had followed standard procedure. Passengers praised the crew but said they had been put up in hotels in Dublin before being flown to Paris on Saturday, where many were then unable to get on overcrowded flights to New York days before Thanksgiving in the United States. <br/>
Lufthansa is in talks with Boeing on buying a possible new freighter version of the 777X jetliner, while welcoming competition with a new Airbus A350 cargo plane, CE Carsten Spohr said on Friday. "We have been negotiating about this morning, but there is much more negotiation to be done," Spohr said at an event to present the upcoming Boeing 777X passenger plane. Fitted with bulky test equipment instead of seats, the giant twin-engined test plane stopped off in Frankfurt after visiting the Dubai Airshow, where host Emirates is the largest 777X customer, and Qatar, whose flag carrier is also a customer. Spohr's comments come amid competition to sell new cargo planes to meet demand in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. Qatar Airways said this week it had an "interesting" proposal from Boeing for a potential 777X freighter, for which it is widely expected to be a launch customer later this year. Airbus this week announced an inaugural leasing customer for the freighter version of its A350 as it seeks to break into a Boeing-dominated market for cargo planes. Bloomberg News reported it may announce a new freighter order later on Friday. Cargolux, a major operator of Boeing 747 freighters, is being heavily wooed by Airbus, industry sources said.<br/>
A British regulator said Friday it was considering whether a deal between South Korean companies Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines could lead to lessening of competition in the markets. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority said it was seeking comments from interested parties and stakeholders before Dec. 3 to assist in its decision of opening a formal investigation if needed. Korean Air said in November last year it would spend 1.8 trillion won ($1.52 billion) to become Asiana's top shareholder.<br/>
Asiana Airlines, South Korea's second-biggest carrier, said Monday it will resume flights to Guam late next month to preemptively respond to pent-up travel demand amid rising vaccinations and eased virus curbs. Asiana plans to run a 188-seat A321NEO plane and operate two flights a week on the Incheon-Guam route from Dec. 23, the company said. "The company decided to reopen the Guam route after 18 years, as it has a couple of destinations to fly at the moment due to a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic," a company spokesman said over the phone. Those who have passed two weeks since their second round of vaccinations and submit negative polymerase chain reaction test results will be exempt from the mandatory self-isolation in Guam, it said. The carrier currently operates four flights a week from Incheon to Singapore and plans to add one flight on the route from Dec. 1.<br/>
Travellers scrambled to book seats on quarantine-free flights between Singapore and Malaysia on the first day of such bookings, with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its budget arm Scoot reporting high demand. An SIA spokesman said that bookings for its vaccinated travel lane (VTL) flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were opened at 10am on Friday and by about 11.20am, several flights were sold out. It did not disclose specific figures as it said the information is commercially sensitive. Seats on the flights were also taken by customers with existing bookings made directly with SIA for travel from Nov 29 to March 26 next year. Such rebookings may have resulted in VTL flights on certain dates being unavailable on its booking system, said the spokesman. The airline said it will e-mail customers when they are rebooked on VTL flights.<br/>
A Singapore Airlines flight landed in Melbourne Airport on Sunday, marking the first time international travellers have been allowed to travel into Victoria state without having to serve quarantine. "We are so excited that travel is getting back to normal and we can't wait to welcome travellers to Melbourne from all over the world," said Melbourne Airport in a Facebook post. Last month, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) announced it would extend its quarantine-free vaccinated travel lane (VTL) scheme to Australia from Nov 8. However, two-way travel applied only to fully vaccinated Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate families due to Australia's border measures. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison subsequently announced that Australia would reopen its borders to all vaccinated Singaporeans from Nov 21.<br/>