Passenger traffic at Grupo Aeromexico in December reached its highest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mexican airline said Thursday. Aeromexico transported 1.74m passengers last month, or 98.9% of the 1.76m people it moved in December 2019, the company said. Aeromexico's total offer, measured in available seat-kilometers (ASKs), was equivalent to 82.6% of the capacity of December 2019, the company said. Domestic capacity was up 13.6% from December 2019, while international capacity was 70.7% of that month. Aeromexico filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in 2020 as demand cratered amid the pandemic. In December it unveiled details of a tender offer valuing its outstanding shares near zero as part of its reorganization plan, sparking a sell-off in the stock. The positive traffic figures did nothing to help the airline's long-suffering stock price, as the shares slumped 6.5% to 2.31 pesos in their seventh straight daily drop.<br/>
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Franco-Dutch airline group Air France-KLM will need to raise additional capital of between E1b and E2b in 2022 to weather the downturn in air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Les Echos reported on Thursday. The paper reported that this would likely not be the last capital issue as the airline would need another E4b to 6b to remain a top industry player. The airline has already received more than E14b ($15.81b) in support from the French and Dutch governments since the start of the COVID crisis. A spokesman for the group could not immediately be reached. In December, Air France-KLM redeemed E500m from an earlier French state loan issued to help the airline cope with the fallout from the pandemic, and said it could also raise new equity.<br/>
The first regular flight between South Korea and Vietnam, which was operated by national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines after two years of hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, landed safely at Nội Bài International Airport in Hanoi at 12:43pm on Thursday. Flight VN417 carrying 63 passengers departed from Incheon International Airport in Seoul. Nguyễn Huy Đức, head of Vietnam Airlines' branch in South Korea, said Vietnam Airlines was the first Vietnamese carrier to resume regular flights between the two countries. There is high demand for returning to the homeland, especially when Tết (Lunar New Year) is approaching, he said. In the first stage of restarting international flights, Vietnam Airlines will operate two flights per week between Seoul and Hanoi but the carrier is ready to add more flights if permitted.<br/>
An anonymous man called a Vietnam Airlines branch in Japan on Wednesday, and said that if a flight heading from Narita (Japan) to Hanoi did not turn back it would be shot down, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV). Flight VN5311/NRT-HAN departed from Narita for Hanoi at 10:30am (local time) on Wednesday, with 15 crew members and 47 passengers aboard. At about 11:10am, the Vietnam Airlines branch in Japan received a phone call from a man who spoke Japanese and claimed to be American. "Flight VN5311 had better come back to Narita or it will be shot down when passing Tokyo Bay," the unidentified caller said. Vietnam Airlines office reported the incident to the Vietnam Airlines Corporation, which forwarded the information to Japanese authorities, the CAAV and agencies of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security. The Corporation convened an urgent meeting of its emergency committee and steering sub-committee for counter-terrorism. With the approval of the Deputy PM and the Minister of Transport, the head of the CAAV instructed Vietnam Airlines to ask for permission from Japan to divert the flight to Japan’s Fukuoka airport. The flight safely landed at Fukuoka airport at 1:02pm. After authorities and police checked the plane, interviewed crew members and passengers, and the flight's safety was evaluated, it was permitted to leave Fukuoka at 3:48pm for Hanoi, and landed at Nội Bài International Airport at 6:12pm (Vietnam time).<br/>