Startup low-fare Icelandic airline Play announced new transatlantic service out of a third US airport, Stewart International in New Windsor, New York, to begin June 9. (Stewart lies about 65 miles north of New York City.) Play, which launched last July with nonstops from Reykjavik, Iceland, to London’s Stansted Airport, is the latest low-fare airline to attempt to make heavily discounted service across the Atlantic work. Play’s immediate Icelandic forebear, Wow Air, went bankrupt in 2019 after starting long-haul services to the US West Coast and India. Denmark’s Primera Air faced a similar fate in 2018. Low-cost Norway-based competitor Norwegian, meanwhile, abandoned long-haul intercontinental operations in January 2021 in order to focus on European and Middle Eastern routes. Now, Play will debut flights from the US to Reykjavik — and onward from there to 22 other European cities — on April 20 with flights from Baltimore/Washington International Airport, followed by Boston Logan starting May 11 using narrow-body Airbus A320neo and A321neo planes. The carrier is promoting the new connecting services to Europe with fares as low as $109 one-way. Story features interview with Play CEO Birgir Jonsson — formerly with Wow Air himself — on what it’s like to start an airline amid a pandemic and how Play plans to succeed where others have failed.<br/>
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Wizz Air’s shares have fallen by 15% over the past year, as the budget airline has struggled with low vaccination rates in its eastern European markets and the continuing impact of Covid-19 on the demand for travel. Despite a sense of cautious optimism emerging as the pandemic picture improves, the airline sector remains riddled with uncertainty — recent results from operators demonstrate this well. Wizz’s latest trading update, covering the three months to December 31, is a case in point. While passenger numbers spiked by 243% to almost 8mn flyers and revenue soared by 173% to E408m against the comparatives, Wizz’s reported loss more than doubled to E268mn due to steep increases in fuel costs and other operating expenses. This included E31m of foreign exchange losses, as the euro weakened against the dollar. Despite the headline loss, Wizz is making concrete progress with expansion plans. The company secured additional slots at London Gatwick airport in December which will enable it to increase passenger numbers in a key UK market. Over 100 new routes have been announced this financial year, and by summer 2022 Wizz hopes to have 170 aircraft in action across its network — 20 more than at December 31. Shortly after the trading update was released, chief executive József Váradi offloaded GBP4m worth of Wizz shares. Vaxco Holdings Limited, an entity closely associated with Váradi, sold the shares on January 31. Wizz’ management expects the results for Q4, the first three months of 2022, to be hit by the “ongoing travel uncertainty” caused by the Omicron variant and a higher operating loss is forecast. The company’s relatively low-cost base, however, puts it in a strong position for the sector’s rebound. The last two years have been a bumpy ride for ecommerce retailer Asos. Its share price shot up 70% from its pre-pandemic level when people were in lockdown at home. However, when rising shipping costs started to kick in during the middle of 2021 profit margins started to shrink. Revenue growth has now also slowed against tough comparators and the share price has dropped below where it started before Covid-19 arrived in the UK. In the four months to the end of 2021, the gross margin fell 400 basis points to 43% because Asos needed to sell slow-moving summer clothes. Discounts are needed to shift shorts and skirts during the dark, cold winter. On top of this, air freight has been needed which is even more expensive than regular shipping costs, which are still around five times higher than pre-pandemic levels.<br/>
US pilot union Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) is protesting Wizz Air’s application to fly to the USA, claiming the Hungarian carrier has used ”a toxic culture of reprisal” to intimidate crew and that it ignores issues such as fatigue and illness that could compromise safety. In a letter to the Department of Transportation (DOT) on 8 February, ALPA requested the DOT defer action on Budapest-based Wizz Air’s application for an air carrier permit for charter and cargo operations until it has consulted with European aviation authorities. “Wizz Air is an anti-union, foreign air carrier that lacks a strong safety culture that now wants to fly to America,” says ALPA president Joe De Pete on 11 February. “We’re calling on DOT to work to ensure labour protections are in place, consistent with the Biden Administration’s strong support for workers’ rights... The US has the safest air transportation system in the world and ALPA intends to keep it that way,” he adds. In the letter to the DOT, ALPA highlights the carrier’s “zero-tolerance policy for unions, assaulting them through public warnings, retaliatory terminations for attempting to organize, and refusals to comply with court orders to reinstate unlawfully terminated employees”.<br/>
The clouds are lifting for travel and aviation as it looks forward to the first half-term for two years free of most Covid shackles. Bookings have boomed since the decision that travel testing would end – and easyJet, the airline that carries the most UK passengers, has just welcomed staff who were working remotely back to the Luton hangar that serves as head office. If optimism is growing that business could return to pre-pandemic levels by summer, easyJet’s chief executive, Johan Lundgren, is clear that the crisis is not yet done. Short-haul and leisure travel, easyJet’s market, will come back quickest, he says – but this is only the recovery phase of the pandemic after a long time in survival mode. “You have to remind yourself that we were grounded for 11 weeks and didn’t know when we would restart operations.” Asked whether we will see more variants, he says: “I’m sure we will. I don’t think we can call it over.” But he certainly believes that testing should be a thing of the past. Having had to track diverging Covid policy across Europe over two years, he says: “It’s been extraordinary sometimes.” Between the EU’s introduction of digital Covid passports last May and the onset of the Omicron variant, for example, he says, most European countries were open to vaccinated travellers: “No testing, no quarantine. The UK was the only country that had these restrictions – and the scientists and experts are [all] looking at the same data. And the UK had some of the highest rates of infections and cases. “So one has to be clear that testing on travel is an extraordinarily inefficient measure to combat the virus. That experiment has now been done. It doesn’t work.” Interview has more.<br/>
Iraqi Airways has received a second Airbus A220-300 as the carrier continues to seek a lifting of a European prohibition on its flights. The airline says the arrival of the jet in Baghdad continues the modernisation of its fleet and represents an “important step to enhancing the efficiency of ‘green bird’ flights to various destinations” – a reference to the Iraqi Airways logo. DG Abbas Al-Zubaidi says the addition of the A220 – with its two-class cabin – supports efforts to increase passenger space and comfort. Iraq’s transport ministry has been holding discussions this week with European Union representatives, which included talks on resolving the problems which have kept Iraqi Airways on the European Commission blacklist since December 2015. The situation was the subject of a high-level meeting which took place in mid-December last year and included the Commission, the Iraqi civil aviation authority, Iraqi Airways and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. Less than a month before the Commission had confirmed that Iraqi Airways remained blacklisted. Iraq’s civil aviation authority had held a technical meeting with the Commission in June last year to update on actions taken to assist with lifting the ban on the airline, and provide information on progress with ICAO audits. The authority indicated that all recommendations resulting from a 2017 technical assistance project had been implemented.<br/>
Jazeera Airways returned to profitability for the year 2021, a period which continued to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions on travel, reporting a net profit of KD7.1m ($23.41m) for the year, up 126.8% from the previous year. The earnings were supported by an increase of 48.2% in the number of passengers flown, which reached 1.0m, while load factors increased by 3.9% to 66.8% and yield increased by 28.6% to KD73.9. Operating revenue for 2021 stood at KD80.4m, up 94.3%, and operating profit increased by 152.2% to KD10.8m. The airline returned to profitability in record time during the third quarter of the year following a second year impacted by restrictions and limitations in capacity imposed on travel at Kuwait International Airport, and globally, in response to the continued spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. <br/>
El Al cabin staff have received a letter informing them that the airline has decided to trial organized in-flight prayers on its long-haul flights between Tel Aviv and North America. The prayer gatherings will be held in the galley at the back of the aircraft, after the meals have been served. The time of prayers will be announced prior to the flight. The formally organized prayer sessions, which will be announced on the passenger's screens and over the aircraft's public information speaker system, "at times regulated by the cabin crew," are designed to replace the current ad-hoc prayers, in which aisles are sometimes blocked at awkward times causing inconvenience and discomfort to some passengers. A minimum of ten Jewish men is required to form a 'minyan' or prayer quorum. El Al insists that the prayer gatherings in the galley will not be allowed to spill over into the aisles and disturb the passengers sitting at the back of the plane. All participants in the prayer gathering will be required to wear masks.<br/>
Capital A Bhd, which owns Malaysia's flagship budget airline AirAsia, is forming an independent board for its aviation arm while mulling a separate listing of the business as the market recovers, its chief said on Friday. Capital A CE Tony Fernandes told reporters in a virtual briefing that all companies under the group, including the airline, would be managed independently, and that the parent group intends for the airline to list. "I think that's up to the board at the right time when they think they need to list and raise capital independently, but definitely from Capital A's board, that is very much a plan," he said. The group appointed a veteran from the telecoms industry, Jamaludin Ibrahim, as the non-executive chairman of AirAsia Aviation Group Limited, who said the full independent board would be announced soon. Fernandes said the group aims to get all its 200 planes flying in six months, expecting a full recovery of the business in the fourth quarter even if China, which contributes high tourist numbers, does not reopen borders fully. "We are anticipating China not to be fully open, but we can cover that with other territories," Fernandes said, pointing to the growing number of travellers domestically and within Southeast Asia. AirAsia is flying 45% of its fleet, and aims to grow its Indonesian fleet from seven to 30 by year-end. Capital A has also launched an aviation consulting business to help set up non-AirAsia branded low-cost airlines outside the ASEAN region for other owners. It is already working on two projects.<br/>