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Starting March 27, Avianca will increase its frequency of flights between Bogota and Santiago de Chile. These operations will be carried out with Airbus A319-100 and Airbus A320, with capacity for 120 and 153 passengers, respectively. The airline currently has two daily frequencies between the Colombian and Chilean capitals with the same aircraft. Santiago de Chile is Avianca’s only destination in Chile. According to the booking system, the carrier will have three daily services starting at the end of March. With this schedule, Avianca will offer more than 3,000 seats per week between Bogota and Santiago de Chile and vice versa.<br/>

Lufthansa is testing a new service that allows passengers to offset the CO2 emissions of their air travel directly on board in a move to offer even more options for CO2-neutral flying. Lufthansa passengers can take advantage of the offer on short- and medium-haul flights with Internet connectivity to and from Munich. The Lufthansa Group airline SWISS will also introduce the test offer on selected long-haul aircraft. The feature is displayed to guests in the onboard entertainment system. There, they can use a slider to choose how they wish to offset the CO2 emissions of their flight: Either via Sustainable Aviation Fuel made from biogenic residues, via high-quality carbon offset projects run by the non-profit organization myclimate, or via a combination of both options.<br/>

The country's top antitrust watchdog is expected to announce its final decision to push forward with a conditional approval of Korean Air's acquisition of Asiana Airlines. The decision is expected to be reached during a plenary meeting scheduled for Wednesday. Industry officials expect the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to give the conditional approval, which will return some of the airport slots and transportation rights obtained by the two airlines, in order to alleviate monopoly concerns. Last December, the FTC expressed its willingness to pursue a conditional approval of the deal. However, other airlines are against the move, claiming that it will hinder their competitiveness globally, as it prevents or eliminates the opportunity for them to increase their market share. The conditional approval also seeks to redistribute the flight rights, which are obtained through government-to-government negotiations, to domestic airlines. Many believe that the approval will do more harm than good to Korea's aviation industry, as Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are the only two full-service carriers capable of conducting long-distance flights. Additionally, the return of slots and transportation rights may lead to a decrease in the competitiveness of the integrated airline, which may end up not achieving the expected power of the merged entities. Some expect that the redistribution of the transportation rights to domestic airlines will open up opportunities for LCCs to enter new routes, but there is concern that LCCs will not participate in long-distance transportation rights, which have difficulty generating profit, and will eventually pass the rights to overseas airlines. Such a situation could lead to a decrease in the overall competitiveness of Korea's aviation industry.<br/>

Air India is likely to handle its first labor-related strife next week as the aircraft maintenance technicians who service the airline’s fleet have threatened a "tools down agitation" across country from February 7. About 1,700 technicians, who are on fixed term contract with Air India Engineering Services(AIESL), a government-owned company that handles engineering jobs for Air India have threatened to take part in the agitation. Among the jobs these technicians handle are aircraft fueling, readying the aircraft for departure, marshaling, maintenance work etc. “Air India’s international and domestic flights will be hit because we make for about 60% of AIESL workforce,” said a technician, requesting anonymity. Their demands include salary revision, employment contract renewal, inclusion of dearness allowance etc. “We want salary based on "equal work, equal pay." Our salaries should be on par with that of service engineers of Air India because our job profile, qualifications etc are the same,” he added. “But our salary is Rs 25,000. For the month of January, many of us received a salary of Rs 21,444. Among the deductions made were those for medical facility and Rs 1100 that AIESL has been deducting since May 2020 as part of economic measures,” he added.<br/>

Virgin Australia has returned flight redemptions with Singapore Airlines to its Velocity Frequent Flyer loyalty scheme for the first time since it tripped into voluntary administration nearly two years ago. It primes the program to return to its former glory, bolstered by new partners such as United Airlines and returning collaborators such as Singapore Air, as the aviation sector looks to get over the latest COVID-19 travel dip. While the spread of the omicron strain forced Virgin to cancel almost one in four flights planned for the March quarter, Velocity boss Nick Rohrlach said nearly 40% of the program’s members are planning an overseas trip in the next year. “We are starting to see some green shoots,” Mr Rohrlach said. “In a recent survey, 39 per cent of members who responded said they are planning to travel overseas in the next 12 months, so it certainly feels that the dial is starting to shift in terms of consumer confidence.“Seats are still the most popular redemption reward for Velocity’s 10 million or so members, Rohrlach said, and Virgin wanted to give them a chance to burn the points they’ve accumulated over the pandemic as travel returns. The federal government said on Monday that Australia’s border would reopen to vaccinated tourists from February 21. “When we look at the most popular Singapore Airlines’ redemptions from 2019, Singapore, London, Paris, and Bangkok were top of the list, and we expect a similar trend as our members start to make bookings again,” Rohrlach said.<br/>