Breeze Airways on Tuesday said it plans nearly double its network to 77 routes this spring and summer, a massive expansion for the US start-up that began flights last May. The Salt Lake City-based airline is JetBlue Airways’ founder David Neeleman’s fifth carrier, one he created to capture travel demand between cities that large carriers weren’t serving. Avelo Airlines, another upstart founded by Andrew Levy, until 2018 United’s CFO, also launched last year, targeting underserved US markets. Breeze and other airlines have been preparing for a strong peak spring and summer travel season after two difficult Covid pandemic years. Now, a surge in jet fuel to a 13-year high after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is testing them on how much they can expand while costs are climbing. “It’s not been the easiest,” said Breeze’s CCO, Lukas Johnson. He said that the list of new flights was “slightly smaller” than expected a few months ago and that the airline made last-minute tweaks over the weekend. Executives want to avoid changing the schedule on customers later on, Johnson said. Still, domestic leisure travel, where Breeze and Avelo have been focused, has been relatively robust compared with international and corporate travel’s sluggish recovery from the pandemic. Breeze has an order for 80 Airbus A220-300 jets, a model whose fuel efficiency and range are attractive to airlines including JetBlue and Delta. Breeze expects to receive about a plane a month from Airbus, Johnson said. It has two in its fleet so far and they’ll start flying in May. The first deliveries have a 36-seat first class, 10 extra legroom seats and 80 in standard coach. Later, they will have 12 first-class seats, 45 in extra legroom and 80 in coach. Breeze started out flying Embraer E190 and E195 jets. The airline will use the new Airbus planes to fly longer distances: transcontinental flights like Savannah, Georgia, to Los Angeles and Providence, Rhode Island, to Los Angeles.<br/>
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After a gruelling two years, Air Transat and Porter Airlines have signed a code-sharing agreement they hope will draw customers to a wider range of connecting flights in Canada and abroad. The first phase of the agreement will focus on connecting Porter's operations at Toronto's Billy Bishop airport and the Halifax airport to Air Transat's hub in Montreal, the airlines say. Expected to take effect this summer as travel demand rebounds, the code-sharing agreement will see each airline sell, under its own code, flights operated by its partner. The deal enables travellers to combine flight segments on a single ticket and check their baggage just once. Porter Airlines CE Michael Deluce says the agreement complements his airline's own growth plans, which include the addition of jets and flights out of Toronto Pearson International Airport later this year.<br/>"The introduction of seamless access to international markets, where Air Transat has made its mark, is an especially great benefit for our passengers," he said in a joint release. Both airlines could use a boost. Porter resumed flights in September for the first time since March 2020 after grounding its fleet due to COVID-19 restrictions. The 16-year-old carrier operates flights to more than a dozen cities in Central and Eastern Canada and five US destinations. Transat, which depends on trips to sun destinations in winter and European cities in summer, lost $886m in its last two fiscal years as the pandemic bled cash from the tour operator. Porter is a private company that doesn't disclose its financial results. The code-share deal also comes as Canadian carriers seek to expand their footprint after the pandemic upended the aviation sector. <br/>
Israel was poised Tuesday to extend financial guarantees for its airlines to fly into Russia, raising criticism in Kyiv as most Western airlines boycott Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. A source in Israel's finance ministry who spoke anonymously to freely discuss pending decisions said the office would seek to extend underwriting put in place last week for Israeli airlines flying into Russia that are not eligible for their regular insurance because of current sanctions. The $2b guarantee had been set to expire on March 9. Britain, Canada, the European Union and the United States have suspended flights to Russia and closed their airspace to Russian aircraft as part of sanctions. Russia retaliated, blocking airlines from those countries from flying over its territory. Air links are still open from some countries to and from Russia, including Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Israeli PM Naftali Bennett has not joined the sanctions as he attempts to balance relations with Kyiv and Moscow. Bennett flew to Moscow on Saturday, breaking the observation of the Sabbath in an effort to mediate between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. A misunderstanding over Israel's continued flights into Russia caused a diplomatic flap. On Tuesday Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba apologised and corrected himself after tweeting that Israel's national carrier El Al still accepts Russia's Mir payment system. An El Al spokesperson said the airline stopped accepting Mir payments four days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.<br/>
Emirates has announced it will ramp up its flight schedule to and from Perth from 1 April, following the reopening of the state’s international borders. According to the Dubai-based carrier, it will increase its number of weekly flights from three to four as of 1 April, and increase again to daily flights from 1 May, to keep up with steadily increasing demand. It will operate the flights – EK420 from Dubai to Perth and EK421 from Perth to Dubai – on its fleet of Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Barry Brown, Emirates Divisional Vice President for Australasia said: “Emirates is excited to increase services to Perth as Western Australia’s borders reopen and demand for travel grows by the day. “We have been busy boosting our operations in response to the resumption of travel. As part of our commitment to Australia, we are playing a role in the recovery of its travel industry, and facilitating a return to normalcy, for our customers to have the freedom to travel again.” It comes after Western Australia’s borders finally reopened to domestic and international travellers after nearly two years of harsh restrictions, just last week.<br/>