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Norwegian Air reported on Friday a full-year profit for 2021 in a turnaround from losses suffered the previous year, and said booking trends point to busier travel ahead for Europe as COVID lockdown restrictions are lifted. The budget carrier's net result swung to a profit of 1.88b Norwegian crowns ($211.4m) last year from a loss of 23b crowns in 2020. Q4 revenue rose almost fourfold to 2.55b crowns from 670m the year before even as the Omicron outbreak affected business in late 2021. "We are looking forward to welcoming more customers on board heading into the busier spring and summer seasons," Norwegian Air CEO Geir Karlsen said. "Booking trends show customers are planning and booking earlier in anticipation that the positive recent developments in regards to COVID-19 vaccinations and restrictions will continue in the long term," the company said in its earnings report. This year, the company plans to increase the number of aircraft in its fleet to 70 from 51 at the end of 2021. At its pre-pandemic peak, Norwegian Air had more than 160 planes. In Q4, 3.1m passengers travelled with Norwegian Air, up from 2.5m in the third and far more than the 600,000 that flew with the airline in the final quarter of 2020.<br/>

Iceland will get a new airline in Niceair, which plans to start flights to mainland Europe amid signs that tourism in the region is bouncing back from the pandemic. The carrier aims to link Akureyri near the Arctic circle with three destinations in the U.K, Spain and Denmark from June. Backed by investors including Iceland’s biggest fishing company Samherji, Niceair will try to attract travelers eager to experience the region’s fjords or go on whale-watching trips. “We hope to revive the old notion of the untouched rural Iceland with its vastness and few people around,” MD Thorvaldur Sigurjonsson said Thursday. Iceland is a busy air-travel market due to its strategic location in the North Atlantic between Europe and North America. More than 20 airlines including Deutsche Lufthansa AG, SAS AB and flag carrier Icelandair served the country before the pandemic. Plummeting sales due to Covid have resulted in capacity reductions and financial difficulties for carries, with some accepting state aid to survive. Niceair’s funding is entirely equity-based and sufficient to sustain loss-running operations for at least two years, Sigurjonsson said. The carrier will initially use Airbus SE A319 aircraft of a European partner airline it didn’t identify. While Niceair will operate its own sales channels, its partner will be responsible for maintenance, quality control and regulatory compliance, he said. Countries in Europe are beginning to reopen as the latest coronavirus wave wanes, bolstering air travel and bookings with tour operators such as TUI AG. Within Europe, flying will surpass 75% of pre-pandemic levels next month, according to Cirium data from airline schedules.<br/>

IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal has resigned from the board and is planning to cut his stake in the airline over the next five years, its parent InterGlobe Aviation said in an exchange filing on Friday. Gangwal and his family owns 36.61% stake in the parent company, while another co-founder and managing director Rahul Bhatia and his family owns about 37.8%, giving them both a major say in the carrier's strategy. The two had engaged in a spat in early 2020 when Gangwal sought to modify certain rules in the company's articles of association. A non-executive director, Gangwal had alleged violations in corporate governance rules at the parent group and wanted to remove an article that prevented co-founders from buying publicly-listed shares in InterGlobe and potentially trigger an open offer for the rest of the company. In December last year, the shareholders of the parent company approved changes to articles of association, including scrapping rules that restricted sale or transfer of shares to a third party. "I have been a long-term shareholder in the company for more than 15 years and it's only natural to someday think about diversifying one's holdings," Gangwal said in a letter to the board of InterGlobe Aviation. Gangwal said he was stepping down immediately as he did not want to hold access to unpublished price sensitive information while he began trimming his stake in the company.<br/>

Peach Aviation said Friday it will reduce its capital to Y100m, aiming to pay less in taxes to make up for cumulative losses due to the pandemic. Peach’s move was the latest in a series of announcements by Japanese low-cost carriers (LCC) on capital reductions following a steep decline in the number of travelers due to COVID-19. Peach, which is under the wing of ANA Holdings Inc., will reduce its capital from Y7.52b to Y100m on March 30. It will also withdraw all its capital reserves totaling Y7.49b and re-register them as additional paid-in capital. Zipair Tokyo and Spring Airlines Japan, both LCC arms of Japan Airlines, have already unveiled plans to reduce their respective capital and capital reserves to Y100m by the end of next month. Companies with capital of Y100m or less are regarded as small businesses and have lighter tax burdens.<br/>

Taiwanese carrier Starlux Airlines is due to take delivery of its first widebody, an Airbus A330neo which will operate flights within the Asia-Pacific region by the middle of the year. The aircraft, registered B-58301, will land in Taipei in the afternoon on 19 February, following a flight from Airbus’ Toulouse facility, says the carrier Friday. It is the first of eight A330neos that Starlux will be taking. Announcing the order in September 2020, the carrier said the eight jets will be leased from Air Lease Corporation. Starlux adds that the first aircraft will enter service “after the approval process and required crew training are completed in May”. It will operate the A330neos — configured to seat 297 passengers in two classes — to cities such as Macau, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, Bangkok and Tokyo. The Taipei-based carrier is the latest Asia-Pacific airline to operate the A330neo — other operators include Cebu Pacific, Garuda Indonesia, as well as Air Calin. Starlux, which will take delivery of three more A330neos this year, is also expected to take the first of 18 A350s in Q3 of the year. Starlux chairman KW Chang says the arrival of the A330neo marks a “key milestone in our growth”. “With the addition of the A330neo, Starlux can deploy our fleet more flexibly and provide our service to more passengers over regional routes,” he adds. <br/>

Malaysian long-haul, low-cost carrier AirAsia X posted an operating loss of MYR11.4m for its Q2 ended 31 December 2021. Owing to a change in its accounting year, it did not provide a comparative figure for a year earlier. Still, the carrier’s performance improved from the MYR356m operating loss posted in the three months to 31 December 2020. Revenue for the last three months of 2021 came in at MYR119 million, mainly derived from cargo and charter operations, up from MYR7.4m in the three months to 31 December 2020. Net losses came in at MYR11.9m for Q2. “This substantial increase in revenue is reflective of a new focus on growing the cargo business of the company, a strategy which will be combined with the carriage of passengers to ensure that all routes operated are profitable on an ongoing basis,” says the airline. “A total of three aircraft were operated during the quarter to December 2021 and, as more aircraft are progressively brought back into service, cargo and charter revenues are expected to continue growing, and will be supplemented by revenue from passenger sales when marks reopen.” As of 31 December, the carrier’s cash and cash equivalents stood at MYR52.7m. AirAsia X, which saw its business all but entirely collapse owing to government travel restrictions in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, adds that “significant progress” is being made with its restructuring. The carrier’s debt restructuring is likely to take effect in the coming weeks, following a lodgment with Malaysia’s companies registrar.<br/>