Southwest has high hopes for capturing business traffic once road warriors are back in the air, but it’s not planning for that anytime soon. For now, it’s all about the sunscreen and care packages. “It’s a leisure world right now, until we get those frequencies flying again,” CCO Andrew Watterson said of the airline’s mainly business-focused routes. “Business travel is what’s missing right now,” he said during a webcast Wednesday hosted by Aviation Week’s CAPA research group. The Dallas-based carrier, which Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly claims is “the No. 1 business airline in the country,” will depend primarily on its historic appeal to leisure travelers pending a full return of business demand -- something it doesn’t expect until 2023. That’s in contrast to rival airlines that say they saw a recovery in domestic corporate travel in early autumn which they hope will continue into next year. United said in October that domestic business demand had rebounded to pre-delta variant levels or better, while Deltasaid domestic corporate volumes in late September and into October reached the highest level in almost two years -- close to 50% of 2019 levels. American Airlines Group has said “almost all” of its top corporate customers had resumed at least some travel by October.<br/>
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Flair Airlines plans to expand its fleet to 30 aircraft by mid-2023, more than double the current size as it strives for a 50-plane fleet within five years. The ultra-low-cost carrier says it will lease an additional 14 new Boeing 737 Max jetliners in the next year and a half while raising its employee tally to 1,000 from the current 600. The new planes would come on top of the dozen now on hand as well as the four already slated for arrival next year. Flair says the fleet, which was effectively down to one plane last April, will see 20 aircraft flying to Canadian cities ranging from Victoria to St John's, N.L., by summer. The budget airline, which also flies to US cities and as of February to Mexico, is growing rapidly in a sector of renewed competition despite pandemic headwinds. Ultra-low-cost carrier Lynx — formerly Enerjet — announced last month it will launch commercial routes next year while WestJet budget subsidiary Swoop continues to bulk up, unveiling nine new routes out of Edmonton in November. "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery," said Flair CEO Stephen Jones. "I think that they recognize what we recognize, which is the Canadian market needs good, strong, ultra-low-cost competition. So we will just focus on playing our game. And if they eventually start flying, we'll deal with it at the time," he said of Lynx. Canada's airline regulator says it continues to monitor financial arrangements between Flair and US private equity firm 777 Partners, which is leasing the airline its new planes. The Miami-based company holds a 25% stake in the carrier.<br/>
A private jet crashed on Wednesday outside Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, killing all nine people on board, including Puerto Rican music producer Flow La Movie, according to the airline and local media. The Gulfstream GIVSP which crashed at Las Americas Airport had left for Miami with two crew members and seven passengers, one of whom was Dominican and the rest of other nationalities, said the airplane's operator, Helidosa Aviation Group. "For Helidosa, this accident causes us great pain and sadness," the company said in a statement, without identifying the cause of the accident.<br/>
The Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, has said the UK government’s response to the Omicron Covid variant has been shaped by “panic” and “idiots”, blaming travel restrictions for a million fewer passengers than forecast flying on his airline this month. The CE of Europe’s biggest carrier contrasted the recent policies implemented in the UK demanding PCR tests for all arrivals with EU states where most fully vaccinated people can travel more freely. On Wednesday, he said: “The panic is largely confined to the UK and Ireland. Across the continent there’s been a much more reasoned approach.” While Ryanair is offering fares of as little as GBP5 one way, O’Leary said “price incentives are not going to make any difference” around Christmas, which he said was well-booked, but the airline would fly about 10m people this month instead of the forecast 11m, and would cut about 10% of its capacity in January. He said: “Where it’s really hit us has been the early weeks of December, bookings in and out of Ireland and the UK … The rest of the continent is still travelling for business and for leisure.” O’Leary said the UK economy was suffering from “piss-poor political leadership”, adding: “What deters booking is the whole uncertainty – this idea that if I travel abroad if the government changes the rules in 24 hours I could be stranded, even if Covid-free and vaccinated … Travel only exists on a degree of confidence.<br/>
Virgin Atlantic Airways is to receive another pair of Airbus A350-1000s from US lessor Air Lease, under a new agreement between the two. The airline will take delivery of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered aircraft in 2023 and 2024. Air Lease says they will be sourced from the company’s current backlog of the type with the airframer. Virgin Atlantic unveiled plans in 2016 to introduce 12 A350-1000s to replace the Boeing 747-400. At the time it stated that it would order eight of the jets directly from Airbus and take the remaining four from Air Lease. Virgin Atlantic currently has eight A350-1000s in its fleet. Airbus’s backlog figures for the end of November show that the airline has received five of the eight jets its ordered from the airframer. Air Lease has ordered a total of 10 A350-1000s.<br/>
A group of 14 investors has called on Wizz Air to allow employees to form and join trade unions, saying their research suggested the London-listed budget airline was discouraging the practice in breach of staff rights. The investor group, which raised their concerns in a letter seen by Reuters, included Britain's Ardevora Asset Management and Denmark's AkademikerPension. The Danish fund threatened to sell its holding if the Budapest-based firm did not respond. Wizz Air said it could not comment on specifics as it was in "active discussion with the investors directly". But it said it took engagement with staff "very seriously" and was confident that structures and processes to support open and transparent engagement were working "extremely well". In the letter, the investors said freedom to unionise was enshrined in global and regional conventions and laws but said their research suggested a pattern of behaviour at the company to block employees doing so. The letter highlighted six examples dating back to 2014, when a Romanian court fined the company after 19 employees were dismissed shortly after starting a union.<br/>