unaligned

The US Transportation Department on Monday barred regional carrier SkyWest from ending service to 29 locales until replacement carriers can be found under the government's subsidy program to provide air service to smaller communities. SkyWest provides regional service for key airlines such as United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta and American Airlines. SkyWest operates the 29 routes under the United Express name providing regional service for United. SkyWest last week announced plans to end service to the 29 communities under the Essential Air Service subsidies program effective on June 8, saying "the pilot staffing challenges across the airline industry preclude" the carrier from continuing service. The Transportation Department said SkyWest cannot terminate service through July 8 "and for additional 30-day periods as necessary" in the event federal officials do not secure another air carrier to provide service under the program at any of the 29 communities. Some of the communities with United Express flights operated by SkyWest being cut include: Cape Girardeau, Joplin and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Decatur, Illinois; Clarksburg and Greenbrier/Lewisburg, West Virginia; and Fort Dodge, Mason City and Sioux City, Iowa. Some others include: Muskegon and Houghton/Hancock, Michigan; Hattiesburg/Laurel, Mississippi; Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Kearney, Scottsbluff and North Platte, Nebraska; Salina, Liberal, Hays and Dodge City, Kansas; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Victoria, Texas. Each route typically has a separate contract. Each contract generally has around $3m in annual government subsidies.<br/>

Canada’s WestJet is reinstating numerous domestic and international routes ahead of the “highly anticipated” summer holiday travel season. The Calgary-headquartered company says on 14 March it plans to fly 94% of its pre-pandemic schedule in the coming months, with more than 600 daily departures. “The aviation industry is a formidable economic engine and the investments we have made across Canada and internationally affirm our commitment to restoring connectivity across our expansive global network, while doing our part to expedite Canada’s economic recovery,” says John Weatherill, the airline’s CCO. The airline will operate flights to 43 domestic, 23 US, 16 Caribbean and eight European destinations from May. It will fly non-stop to Europe from Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax. It will also launch a new daily service between Toronto and Chicago beginning on 19 May. The routes from Atlantic Canada are especially important to the carrier’s east-coast and Europe operations. It suspended those destinations early in the pandemic. “These routes create a substantial visitor pipeline from Europe and demonstrate WestJet’s commitment to re-establishing Halifax as our Atlantic gateway hub, which is critical for the region’s economic recovery, adds Weatherill.<br/>

Brazil’s Gol reports higher revenue for the final quarter of 2021 as it continues its fleet transformation and keeps costs in check, while at the same time keeping an eye on possible market consolidation. “In 2021… we made significant progress across multiple measures of success, derived from our winning business model, a highly flexible and efficient fleet, and by providing a customer experience that continues to build preference for our brand,” Gol CE Paulo Kakinoff says on 14 March. He spoke during the airline’s quarterly earnings call. Gol achieved R$2.9b ($570m) in revenue for the final quarter of the year, up from R$1.9b in the same quarter one year earlier. For the full year, the carrier’s revenue rose 16.7% to R$7.4b, up from R$6.4b in 2020. The company posted a R$682m loss for the quarter, compared to R$862m during the same quarter in 2020. The company’s full-year loss was R$3.6b. The Sao Paulo-based carrier is “fully committed to judiciously expanding its operations to meet the growing demand for air travel, while also controlling costs and achieving operational efficiencies”. In Q4, Gol transported 6.5m customers, up 26.1% compared to Q4 2020, and about 67.9% of the same quarter of 2019.<br/>

Dominican Republic-based Arajet, the corporate successor to now-defunct Flycana, has ordered 20 Boeing 737 Max 8-200s and taken options to purchase an additional 15 Max jets. Boeing disclosed the deal on 14 March but says it finalised the purchase order in January. Separate from the newly disclosed order, Arajet holds agreements to lease another five 737 Max, meaning its eventual fleet of the Boeing narrowbodies could reach 40 aircraft. “The efficient Boeing 737 Max, together with financial and operational support from our partners at Griffin and Bain Capital, gives us the solid foundation necessary to provide flights at affordable prices to travellers in the region,” says Arajet executive officer Victor Pacheco. The carrier received its first 737 Max – a baseline Max 8 variant – in March from lessor Griffin Global Asset Management. Arajet did not respond immediately to questions about its fleet plan. From its hub in Santo Domingo, Arajet’s 737 Max will have sufficient range to “serve a large number of traditional and under-served markets in the continental United States, Brazil, Colombia and beyond”, Boeing says. The 20-aircraft order calls for Arajet to acquire 737 Max 8-200s, a high-capacity variant with additional exit doors that Boeing says can carry up to 210 passengers. Arajet is an operating subsidiary of Dominican Wings and part of the same corporate family that once operated Flycana. In 2021, the Dominican Republic’s civil aviation regulator approved Dominican Wings, via Arajet, to operate 30 routes, including those to Aruba, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. The carrier has said it intends to begin flying in 2022. It is not yet selling tickets on its website.<br/>

Russian carrier Utair insists it will be able to maintain services using domestically-registered aircraft, after restricting the operation of those on the Bermuda register. Bermuda’s civil aviation authority suspended airworthiness certification of the Russian fleet on its register from 13 March. Utair states that it has received a notification from the authority – with which dozens of Russian aircraft are registered – concerning the suspension. “We immediately restricted flights of these airliners,” says the carrier, one of Russia’s major civil air transport operators. “Utair operates flights in strict accordance with Russian and international legislation and, as always in practice, does not allow violations,” adds Utair president Oleg Semenov. The airline has been transferring aircraft to the domestic Russian registry since last year, part of an effort to simplify administration. Semenov says some 50 aircraft within the fleet – including Boeing 767s – have been moved to Russian registrations, and that this is “enough to provide uninterrupted aviation services” to the company’s passengers. Nine Boeing 737s under operating lease have been decommissioned, it adds, in accordance with the requirements of lessors and other legislation.<br/>

South African carrier Comair has submitted documentation aimed at enabling it to resume operations after the country’s aviation regulator indefinitely suspended the airline’s operating licence in relation to ”a spate of occurrences” affecting a number of flights. The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) had initially issued a 24h precautionary suspension of Comair’s air operator certificate (AOC) following an inspection on 12 March. While noting the carrier’s quick response to the findings had already rectified one of the operational issues raised, SACAA on 13 March indefinitely suspended Comair’s AOC pending resolution of the other issues. Comair operates franchise flights for British Airways as well as the budget brand Kulula. SACAA says it investigated the carrier to ”determine the cause of a spate of occurrences affecting a concerning number of flights operated by Kulula.com and BA Comair”. It sought to confirm Comair’s compliance with aviation regulations and as well as reviewing its quality control and safety management systems. ”This resulted in the regulator raising three Level 1 findings, and one Level 2 finding,” it says; Level 1 findings are those judged to pose an immediate risk to safety. ”SACAA recognises the efforts of the operator to close the findings as speedily as possible and in this regard the operator started dispatching the evidence to the regulator from the evening of 12 March 2022,” the regulator says and it continues to assess further evidence put forward by the airline. Comair says it is unable to confirm when it will start flying again, but notes it has providing documentation the regulator requested.<br/>

Niceair has named London, Copenhagen Kastrup, and Tenerife as its first destinations when it it starts flights from June 2 this year. It did not specify any frequencies let alone clarify which airports in the British capital or the Canary Islands it would serve. The virtual carrier has reportedly secured a 150-seater A319-100 to ply the routes, which will focus on Akureyri in northern Iceland. It has yet to disclose the identity of its production carrier. Akureyri currently sees scheduled services to Reykjavik Domestic with Air Iceland Connect as well as to Grimsey, Neerlerit Inaat (Greenland), and Vopnafjördur via Norlandair (FNA, Akureyri).<br/>