GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes is to resume flights to the United States in May 2022. Departing from Brasilia, 4x weekly flights to Orlando Int'l, Florida will restart on May 13, with 4x weekly services to Miami Int'l resuming on May 17, 2022, the airline announced in a statement. The Brazilian budget carrier said it added both destinations to its international network in 2018, but flights were shelved in March 2020 due to the pandemic. Both cities are popular tourism destinations for Brazilians and provide onward connections on its codeshare partner American Airlines. GOL said it was also planning to return to Florida from Manaus and Fortaleza, but dates were not yet announced. Randall Saenz Aguero, Director of Alliances, International and Distribution at GOL, said the carrier’s international route network in November 2021 had started recovering from the effects of COVID-linked travel restrictions. <br/>
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Icelandair Group is restructuring its organisation, splitting its commercial operation into two divisions – focused on customers and revenue – and recruiting a former director, who also served with defunct budget carrier Wow, to head the revenue side. The revenue division will comprise the network, revenue management and sales functions in a single branch, and be led by Tomas Ingason, previously the chief commercial officer of Wow. Ingason also served as director of Icelandair’s revenue management for several years and held roles at companies including Arion Bank. Icelandair Group says the customer division will concentrate on fostering a “customer-centric focus” and strengthen the Icelandair brand. The company is recruiting for a chief customer officer to lead the division. It is also seeking a chief digital officer to lead a digital and data arm, supporting business units to enable data-driven decision-making and develop “simple and enjoyable journeys” for the airline’s passengers. “We live in a changed world as we continue on the path to recovery from the global pandemic and where the importance to ensure a sustainable future is paramount,” says Icelandair Group chief Bogi Nils Bogason. The company says the new structure is intended to support its “ambitious” strategy of digital transformation and sustainable growth.<br/>
European airlines are in for a fraught period between now and the end of the year due to renewed COVID-19 concerns that will disrupt Christmas travel and early summer holiday bookings, Ryanair Group CE Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday. Tighter restrictions in many countries and a reimposed lockdown in Austria - the first in western Europe since vaccines were rolled out - has raised the spectre of a second straight winter of tough curbs throughout the continent. "Up until last weekend, things were going great. Volumes were back running at about 100% of our pre-COVID price volumes. It has been disrupted by the Austrian lockdown and there is a renewed concern across Europe about a fourth or firth wave of COVID," O'Leary said. "I think we're in for a fraught period between now and Christmas where it looks like Europe is going to get very nervous again at the worst time of the year when people are making their Christmas travel plans... I think it's inevitable we will undermine confidence between now and Christmas, and that will disrupt Christmas and also unsettle people between Christmas and New Year when they would normally start booking their summer holidays." O'Leary said earlier this month that while winter would be tough, he hoped that keeping prices low and passenger numbers high over that period would set Europe's largest low cost airline up for a very strong recovery in the summer of 2022. He reiterated on Tuesday that it was inevitable air fares will increase into the summer of 2022 and the Irish carrier hoped to get back to pre-pandemic pricing levels.<br/>
Botswana's Mack Air and Zimbabwean charter carrier Central Air Transport Services (CATS) have announced a new codeshare partnership for the launch of a new daily safari service between Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park, both in Zimbabwe, in April 2022. “As tourism growth continues to improve across Southern Africa in a post COVID environment, it is important for aviation charter and commuter companies to play an integral and catalytic role in assisting with the recovery of the regional tourism sector. The union between CATS and Mack Air is one of the ways we intend to try and be a part of the solution and further assist in uniting African countries by further bolstering tourism and conservation efforts across Southern Africa,” Mack Air said. “CATS and Mack Air share a common vision and we aim to assist in bringing confidence back to regional safari travel and likewise open new destinations and continue to play a critical role within the southern region of Zimbabwe and Botswana and more specifically the Hwange area,” said Mack Air Managing Director, Michael Weyl. He said safari tourists would be able to connect on Mack Air’s international scheduled flight between Kasane (Botswana) and Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) to the new daily flights to airstrips within the Hwange National Park. The new Hwange service will also offer connections to Eurowings’ new connection from Frankfurt Int'l via Windhoek Int'l to Victoria Falls starting on March 30, 2022. “We’re thrilled to be able to get in on the action by offering our new services to the Hwange area – meaning international visitors arriving on the Eurowings flight can smoothly link between Victoria Falls, Hwange, and Kasane,” the carrier said.<br/>
El Al has detailed an agreement for funding support from the government and its controlling shareholder, Kanfei Nesharim, which includes a commitment to a share offering by mid-September next year. Under the 22 November agreement Kanfei Nesharim will provide El Al with $63 million through four loans. Three of these – sequentially for $25 million, $18 million and $7 million – will take effect before the end of November, while a fourth for $13 million will be provided by the end of February 2022. These loans can be converted into capital at any point. El Al had previously intended to undertake a $105 million share offering to raise capital, with Kanfei Nesharim contributing $43 million, but this had been postponed. The new agreement states that the share issue will take place no later than 19 September 2022. It points out that the first two of the four shareholder loans total $43m and will be considered as meeting Kanfei Nesharim’s obligation for the offering. Once the first three loans have been provided, by 30 November, the government will transfer $7 million to the carrier, and it will hand over another $13 million once the fourth loan is in place. This government support, in the form of debt, can be converted into equity after three years. El Al will have an option, until 30 June 2022, to require Kanfei Nesharim to provide an additional loan of up to $10 million. If this option is exercised, the government will provide further state aid matching the figure. As a result, the government will be offering up to $30 million in total support to the airline.<br/>
India’s SpiceJet has agreed to settle dues with lessors and creditors, and will conclude the hive-off of its cargo unit by January, the airline’s chairman said, as it looks to clean-up its balance sheet as part of a recovery plan. The budget carrier is reeling from losses due to the pandemic, which brought air travel to a near halt, as well as the worldwide grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes in 2019 following two fatal crashes. Last week, SpiceJet and Boeing agreed to settle claims related to the MAX, which was cleared for flying in August by India’s air safety watchdog. The Indian carrier was flying 13 MAX planes at the time of the grounding and has a total order of 155 aircraft. “The compensation provided by Boeing is in cash and kind, and in the form of aircraft,” Ajay Singh told reporters on Tuesday. He declined to give financial details of the deal. The airline now plans to speed up the induction of the fuel-efficient MAX, adding 50 new planes over the next two years, which would “make a big difference to SpiceJet’s bottom line”, Singh said. This has paved the way for SpiceJet to settle its liabilities, especially with several of its lessors, to which it was unable to make timely payments during the pandemic. The airline will also conclude a hive-off of SpiceXpress by January so the cargo business can raise money separately for its logistics push, Singh said. SpiceJet is also exploring the viability of scheduled long-haul flights using widebody planes which it started during the pandemic as charter operations to destinations in Canada and Europe.<br/>
Rex has been awarded a new five-year contract by the Queensland government to perform a key regional air route connecting regional communities across central Queensland with Brisbane city. The Queensland government announced on Tuesday that from 1 January, Rex will take over the Central 1 route, connecting the regional towns of Roma and Charleville to the state’s capital of Brisbane. Central Route 1 forms one of seven regional routes that are regulated by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, and the route was previously serviced by Rex rival QantasLink. QantasLink’s contract is due to expire in December after five years of servicing Central Route 1, and Rex said the tender process for the route was “competitive”. In total, Rex was awarded with six regulated routes under the Queensland government’s regulated air service contract scheme, retaining its five previous contracts for another five years.<br/>