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Hawaiian Holdings, the parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, says Q4 losses narrowed as tourists returned to the Pacific Ocean archipelago in greater numbers toward the end of 2021. The Honolulu-based carrier says on 25 January it lost $92.6m during the final quarter of 2021, compared to $162.6m for the same quarter during 2020, amid widespread travel restrictions, including quarantine measures. For the full year, Hawaiian lost $144.8m compared to $510.9m in 2020. Total revenue for Q4 came in at $494.7m, down 30% compared to Q42019, on 19% lower capacity. For the full year of 2021, Hawaiian posted revenue of $1.6b, down 44% compared to the full year of 2019, on 29% lower capacity. “Demand for leisure travel remains resilient as evidenced by strong domestic travel volumes to Hawaii, and the building blocks continue to fall into place for a recovery of international demand in 2022,” says Hawaiian’s CE Peter Ingram. “We ended the quarter largely as expected with strong demand and signs of recovery,” he adds. “We faced operational disruption due to the Omicron variant and have had to make modest near term adjustments to restore our operational integrity and are on better footing for the months ahead.”<br/>

Hawaiian Airlines is seeking to ramp up its limited flight service to Japan in Q2, an omicron variant-linked delay from the carrier’s earlier goal of returning to a fuller slate of flights by late March. Japan represents the largest foreign market for Hawaiian, which had about a quarter of its business outside the US before the pandemic struck in early 2020. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the nation would extend its border restrictions until the end of February because of the variant. “The international travel policy changes we have seen since the identification of the omicron variant continue to remind us that the road ahead may not be smooth,” Peter Ingram, CEO of Hawaiian’s parent, Hawaiian Holdings Inc., said Tuesday on a call with analysts. The Honolulu-based carrier also said delivery of its initial two Boeing Co. 787 aircraft will be delayed until the first half of next year from late 2022.<br/>

Latam Airlines Group “flatly rejected” Azul’s offer to buy the bankrupt carrier even though the sale would be a better deal for creditors, Azul contends in new court filings. Azul for months has been expressing interest in a tie-up with Chile’s Latam, but the bankrupt airline has refused to seriously engage in talks, lawyers for Brazil-based Azul said in court papers. Azul said its deal outlined in a Nov. 11 term sheet values Latam at $13 billion and would provide more for creditors than Latam’s current proposal, which is on the verge of seeking court approval. Latam has said Azul’s offer lacked critical details -- like how the deal would be executed, how long it would take and whether it could be approved by regulators -- as well as the requisite support from creditors. Latam’s restructuring plan is backed by a key group of creditors -- including SVPGlobal, Sculptor Capital Management and Sixth Street Partners -- and its largest equity holders. Latam is approaching a critical juncture in its effort to exit the bankruptcy case, which began with a Chapter 11 filing in May 2020 as Covid-19 lockdowns stymied international travel. On Thursday, the company will seek a bankruptcy judge’s permission to begin collecting creditor votes on its restructuring plan. Its official committee of unsecured creditors is opposing that step, alleging the plan violates US bankruptcy law. <br/>

Top executives of Norwegian Air, which flies a Boeing-only fleet, met with a sales team from rival aircraft maker Airbus this week, according to an internal Norwegian memo seen by Reuters and confirmed by a company spokesperson. The budget carrier, which today operates around 50 Boeing 737 aircraft, said in October it had agreed to lease up to 13 more 737-800 NG aircraft ahead of the 2022 European summer season. However, it added that some of the leased aircraft can be substituted for “new technology narrow-body aircraft from either Boeing or Airbus”, the two main competitors in the commercial aircraft market for decades. “I can confirm that there has been a recent dialogue between Airbus and representatives of Norwegian’s corporate management,” the spokesperson for the airline said on Wednesday, while declining to elaborate. Should Norwegian switch to Airbus, it would be the first time it has non-Boeing aircraft in its fleet, with implications for the organisation, such as re-training crew. The memo cited Tore Jenssen, head of the airline’s fleet company Arctic Aviation Assets, saying Norwegian and Airbus had been discussing the latest developments in aircraft technology. CE Geir Karlsen was also present at the meeting. Norwegian emerged from government-backed bankruptcy proceedings in May last year but is still locked in a dispute with Boeing over the cancellation of orders for 97 aircraft, which is to be decided in US legal proceedings. A deal with Airbus would not be Norwegian's first, however. It signed a agreement in 2012 to buy 100 jets with options for a further 50 but only took delivery of a fraction of the order before it was forced to restructure. The planes were leased to other carriers and the Airbus contract terminated here as part of the restructuring.<br/>

Italian investigators probing a Norwegian Boeing 787-8 engine failure have confirmed that progressive corrosion fatigue resulted in a 6mm crack in an intermediate pressure turbine blade, which separated on take-off from Rome. Investigation authority ANSV has also disclosed that 84 other similar blades in the left-hand Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 powerplant engine were also cracked, as were 92 blades in the aircraft’s right-hand engine. Some 32s after taking off from Rome Fiumicino’s runway 16R on 10 August 2019, the 787 suffered the initial failure at just over 1,000ft radio altitude. Its crew shut down the left engine and opted to turn back to the airport, landing 25min after departure. None of the 286 passengers and 12 crew on board the jet was injured. The aircraft was powered by Trent 1000 ‘Package B’ engines. At the time Trent 1000s had been the subject of various blade-durability issues and redesign efforts by the manufacturer. ANSV says the blade failed at 1,210 cycle, still 200 cycles below life-limit imposed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. The inquiry also found that blades on the other engine had a narrower margin, having accumulated 1,337 cycles and leaving just 103 cycles to reach the life limit. Analysis found that the deepest crack in the right-hand engine’s blades was nearly 3.5mm. Ten similar cases of intermediate pressure turbine blade detachment before the Rome event had occurred since 2015, as a result of the same phenomenon, says ANSV. Phasing out of pre-modification blades had begun more than two-and-a-half years before the incident, and the substitution process was accelerated as a result.<br/>

Czech carrier Smartwings has conducted a Boeing 737 Max service to Antarctica, landing the aircraft at the Troll airfield on 26 January. The airline says the Max 8 twinjet is the first from the re-engined family to arrive in Antarctica. Troll station is sited on the edge of Antarctica closest to southern Africa. Operated by the Norwegian Polar Institute, it has a 3,000m runway located on a glacier at 1,232m altitude. Smartwings says the aircraft departed Oslo, with a stop in the city of N’Djamena in Chad, before proceeding to Cape Town and then onwards to the polar region. “The [runway] surface was specifically prepared, and braking action measured by Norwegian Polar Institute prior to operation,” says the carrier It adds that the crew – comprising three experienced captains – received continuous weather updates and reports on the airport’s availability via datalink and satellite phone communications. “The preparations took many months, and the flight and landing went smoothly,” says Smartwings captain and flight director Tomas Nevole. Arctic survival training formed part of the preparatory work. Approval had to be obtained from Czech authorities to operate to Troll, as it is an isolated airfield with no alternates.<br/>

Wizz Air, the low-cost airline, has forecast more losses during the winter because of the Omicron coronavirus variant — but the carrier expects a resurgence in passenger demand led by the UK later in the year. The London-listed airline on Wednesday reported an operating loss of €213.6m for the final three months of 2021, when the emergence of the variant and travel restrictions derailed the aviation sector’s fragile recovery. That figure was worse than the E141.9m lost in the same period in 2020 as Wizz burnt through cash to increase its workforce, fleet of aircraft and opened new bases. But Jozsef Varadi, Wizz CE, remained upbeat as he forecast a rapid recovery in the summer season, when the airline would have the aircraft to carry 50% more passengers than in 2019, enabling it to operate at “full-blown” capacity. His bullish outlook helped lift shares, which rose 4% to GBP44.40 by early afternoon in London. The airline will have a 170-strong fleet of aircraft by the summer, following an ambitious expansion strategy that involved ordering new planes and opening bases as it expands its eastern European hubs to the wider regional market. Earlier, the Budapest-based carrier said in its statement that operating losses would “slightly” widen in the present quarter, before demand for travel returned. Low-cost rival Ryanair said before Christmas that its losses for 2021 could more than double after it slashed flight schedules in response to the spread of Omicron. As an example of the potential for recovery, this week’s easing of UK travel restrictions had an “immediate effect” and led to a rise in bookings “the next minute”, Varadi said. He added that the airline had to discount ticket prices to encourage people to travel. He expects passenger demand to suffer in January, February and for the first part of March. <br/>

Star Flyer has said that it will allow passengers to bring their pets with them into aircraft cabins from March 27. The airline will be the first in Japan to offer such a service for regular domestic flights. With the airline industry in a tough business environment amid the coronavirus pandemic, Star Flyer is hoping to stimulate air travel demand through the new service. On the route between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Kitakyushu Airport in Fukuoka Prefecture, Star Flyer will offer the new service on four flights per day. One pet per flight will be accepted into the cabin with its owner. The service, which will only be available for small dogs and cats, will cost ¥50,000 per animal. Seats in the last row of a plane will be offered for the pets. Dogs and cats will be required to wear diapers when flying in the cabin. While onboard, owners will not be allowed to take their pets out of their cages, which will be situated on the seats.<br/>

Malaysia’s AirAsia X has signed a partnership deal with French logistics firm Geodis, aiming to develop cargo capacity and generate revenue while passenger flights remain grounded due to coronavirus travel curbs, the airline said in a statement on Wednesday. AAX, the long-haul affliate of budget carrier AirAsia Group, said the agreement will run for an initial period of six months commencing Jan. 20, with further extensions to be contemplated. The cargo plan comes as the carrier restructures its business with passenger flights grounded since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 as Malaysia’s borders remain closed to international tourism. Under the agreement, AAX will provide regular dedicated scheduled cargo flights between Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, Chennai, Shanghai and Sydney, it said. CE Benyamin Ismail said the airline intends to capitalise on air cargo rates that have risen as while passenger planes remain grounded.<br/>