star

Copa Holdings, parent of Panama City-based Copa Airlines, posted a profit for the fourth quarter of 2021 but says the Omicron variant of Covid-19 will negatively affect first-quarter earnings. The company says on 10 February that it earned a profit of $114.4m in the final three months of 2021, compared to a $2.7m in the same quarter in 2019. For the full year, the carrier’s profit was $39.9m, compared to $247m in 2019. Total revenue for the quarter fell to $575m, down from $681.9m in 2019. In the full year 2021, Copa reported $1.5b in revenue, compared to $2.7b in 2019. “In the fourth quarter we delivered our strongest quarterly financial result since the beginning of the pandemic,” says CE Pedro Heilbron. But like its peers across the hemisphere, Copa has faced the challenge of navigating the ups and downs of recovery. “Despite the company’s positive financial results during the fourth quarter, the first quarter of 2022 has been challenging given the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the Americas, mainly driven by the Omicron variant,” Heilbron adds. “As has been observed in other regions of the world, the company currently believes that the impact of Omicron will be temporary and that the recovery of international air travel demand should resume later in the first quarter.”. Copa reduced capacity 4% in January and February, cancelling 1,000 flights, and expects load factors will be less than in the previous quarter. The airline expects revenue of about $550 million in the first quarter, or about 82% of revenue in the first quarter of pre-pandemic 2019.<br/>

The CEO of TAP Air Portugal says the requirement that airline passengers wear masks may be with us forever. “We have put into place so many additional protocols,” said Christine Ourmières-Widener, who was named CEO in June. “I am absolutely convinced they will stay forever.” Ourmières-Widener said mask wearing during flights, increased aircraft cleaning and checks of vaccine certificates could all remain in place. “We are still very cautious,” she said in an interview Tuesday as she visited TAP’s Newark office. “The pandemic is about to be gone. The recovery will take time.” The IATA recently urged the US government to remove a pre-departure testing requirement for fully vaccinated travelers flying to the US. Ourmières-Widener said she backs IATA. “What we would like to see is global protocols and more consistent way to see what conditions are,” she said, citing the difficulty in flying from one market to another. She added that a TAP passenger from Newark to Lisbon recently had to cancel his flight because his test results were no longer valid.<br/>

The head of Japan’s biggest airline has urged the government to ease its strict border controls, which have effectively shut the nation to foreigners, saying they are hurting the economy and the aviation industry. “There are various problems happening with the situation that foreigners can’t enter Japan,” Yuji Hirako, the president of ANA said Wednesday. “I hope for eased border controls for the sake of the Japanese economy.” Earlier Thursday, ANA said Hirako will be replaced as president by Shinichi Inoue effective April 1. At parent company ANA Holdings, Senior Executive VP Koji Shibata will succeed Shinya Katanozaka as president. Japan’s border controls, implemented when the omicron variant started to circulate late last year, are by far the strictest among the Group of Seven advanced nations. They have attracted criticism as the country slammed its door shut to foreign visitors and students, even as record case numbers undermined the policy’s effectiveness. The border closure has also hit ANA’s business. While the airline squeezed out a profit for the first time in two years last quarter, it sees omicron as a risk in coming months, potentially crippling travel demand. “Once the border control is relaxed, we will see more demand for business flights again,” Hirako said, adding that he and JAL President Yuji Akasaka were among a handful of executives who were unable to attend the IATA’s annual meeting in October. “The key is when passenger demand for international flights come back,” Hirako said. “It’s important to have an exchange of information by seeing people face-to-face at an international conference,” he said. “It not only applies to the aviation industry, but to all kinds of businesses.”<br/>

Air NZ is set to relaunch 24 international routes, including some long-haul operations and routes to tropical islands, as the country gets prepared to open its border.The Government has announced a five-step reopening plan that starts progressively in February. The national carrier has responded with plans to restart flying to popular destinations like Singapore, Hawaii, San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago. The Auckland to Singapore route is the first big international restart, with flights set to resume on March 27. Another long-haul route will be relaunched in April, with Auckland to San Francisco services set to return on April 14. By July, flights to Houston will return before flights to Chicago return on September 30. The new long-haul routes will operate alongside flights to Taipei, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo, Vancouver and Los Angeles – which are already operating.Kiwis keen for a tropical holiday are also in for a treat. Flights from Auckland to Honolulu, Tahiti and New Caledonia will resume in July. Services from Wellington and Christchurch to Fiji will also resume that month. These flights will sit alongside Air New Zealand services to Rarotonga, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji – which are already operating. Across the Tasman, Air New Zealand is significantly scaling up operations, restarting 15 routes over the next five months. That includes flights from Auckland to the Gold Coast restarting March 2, and Adelaide, Cairns, Hobart, Sunshine Coast in July.<br/>