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The CE of Aeroflot is no longer on the board of governors of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a spokesman for the airline trade group said on Tuesday by email. Aeroflot CEO Mikhail Poluboyarinov was recently blacklisted by the European Union as part of mounting sanctions against Russia, following the country's invasion of Ukraine. <br/>

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the coronavirus crisis is effectively over as far as the travel sector is concerned, with demand comfortably outweighing any impact from Russia’s war in Ukraine. Delta had the two busiest days for sales in its near 100-year history last week, while the North Atlantic market has been swamped with bookings despite the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Europe, Bastian said Tuesday in a briefing in London. “People have decided to start traveling again,” he said. “And in the last three weeks the governments of the world have decided it’s time to go, that the Covid era is over. We’re moving into a period where we’re managing this virus, rather than being managed by it.” The Russian invasion isn’t damping Americans’ willingness to visit Europe, Bastian said. “We saw a momentary little blip for about a week when the war started, but demand is strong.” The CEO was also sanguine about the impact of the war on jet-fuel prices, saying that while the hit from crude is a “significant one,” carriers have had to cope with kerosene at similar levels before. The pent-up desire to fly is such that costs can be passed on in higher fares, he said. “One-hundred dollar oil prices are not something that we haven’t already dealt with in the past,” he said. “The earlier part of the last decade, oil averaged north of $100 a barrel and the airlines did just fine. It just takes time for the impact to be passed through to pricing systems.”<br/>

The head of Delta has said that higher ticket prices await flyers as a result of the rising cost of oil, in another sign of inflationary pressures seeping into the economy. Ed Bastian, Delta CE, said that the third-largest US carrier would add a fuel surcharge to international flights “as the market conditions permit”. Higher fuel costs “will no question” raise ticket prices, both domestically and internationally, he said. His comments come after jet fuel prices rose sharply after Russia invaded Ukraine last month. While it has partially receded, jet fuel remains about two-thirds higher than a year ago. Glen Hauenstein, Delta president, said at an industry conference earlier on Tuesday that the airline needs “to recapture somewhere between $15 and $20 each way on an average ticket value of about $200”, and that the company is confident passengers will be willing to pay it. Bastian said that customers continued to book flights despite uncertainty over fuel costs and the war in Ukraine. While Delta’s bookings for transatlantic flights fell between 5 and 10% in the week following the invasion, Delta had its biggest ever day of sales last week. The positive outlook was shared by Shai Weiss, CE of Delta’s joint-venture partner Virgin Atlantic, who said that sales have snapped back after taking a hit at the start of the war. Bastian saw no signs US consumers have been put off travelling. “As the conflict continues, there could be an element of caution. But we’re not seeing any significant impact,” he said. Delta said that in Q1 it had 83% of seat capacity compared to 2019, before the pandemic. The Atlanta-based airline forecast a pre-tax quarterly loss but a profit for the month of March.<br/>

Delta and partner Virgin Atlantic said Tuesday that pent-up demand for international travel meant customers were willing to pay higher fares, spurring a rebound in bookings and helping them cover surging fuel costs. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has forced the closure of vast swathes of airspace and pushed the cost of fuel higher, applying new pressures to an airline industry that has spent two years battling travel bans and restrictions from COVID-19. CEO Ed Bastian told a news conference in London that Delta had enjoyed the busiest booking day in its history last week, even though many Asian routes remained suspended, and he was seeing the strongest demand in his career. Virgin CEO Shai Weiss said that while he could not predict how consumers would respond to higher prices in the long term, for now it was seeing strong demand for premium leisure travel and a strong recovery in business travel. "We really haven't seen any impact at all, in terms of reluctance to travel from US travellers coming to Europe," Delta's Bastian said, adding that he was not at "a point of nervousness" about rising oil prices. As Bastian was speaking, Delta raised its current-quarter revenue forecast. read more US airlines, which cut capacity during the pandemic, do not hedge against volatile oil prices like most European airlines. The industry expects fares to rise as demand increases, helping to soften the blow. Weiss said Virgin had seen a bit of a dip in demand after the Russian invasion, but that it had since recovered. "There is a very strong pricing environment right now, which makes sense given the pent-up demand but also of course the high input prices of fuel," he said. Both airlines also said they had seen a recovery in business class bookings, with Delta saying corporate travel was 60% back, led by demand in the United States, while Virgin's business bookings were at 50% of 2019 levels. <br/>

Delta said it’s working with Air France-KLM as the Paris-based airline considers joining in the bidding for a stake in Italy’s state-owned carrier. Italia Tranporto Aereo would be a welcome recruit to the North Atlantic alliance led by Delta, according to Ed Bastian, the U.S. carrier’s CEO. “Air France-KLM is in the lead in terms of actually making a potential investment,” Bastian said in a briefing in London on Tuesday. “We’re providing strategic support through our partnership.” A spokesman for the Franco-Dutch carrier declined to comment. Italy last month began the process of selling ITA following an approach in January from container line MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co., which was backed by Deutsche Lufthansa AG. The German carrier would be involved as an industrial partner from the outset and could eventually take an equity stake, the company has said. Air France-KLM’s ambitions may be complicated by the company’s coronavirus pandemic bailouts from the French and Dutch governments. One of the conditions of the multi-billion euro packages is a block on taking a stake of more than 10% in a rival until it has paid the money back. According to Italy’s Repubblica, Air France-KLM and Delta are working with an unnamed fund as a potential partner on ITA. Its predecessor, Alitalia SpA, was a long-standing member of the Delta-led joint venture on trans-Atlantic flights, something Bastian said couldn’t be the case with ITA if the Italian firm were to partner with a competitor. Since its began service last year, ITA has joined Delta’s SkyTeam Alliance. <br/>

Mexico's Grupo Aeromexico shares plunged for a fourth day in a row on Tuesday after nearly a fifth of the company's capital was sold at 1 cent a share through a public offering as part of its restructuring plan to exit bankruptcy. Shares in Grupo Aeromexico, which operates the country's main airline and filed for bankruptcy in 2020, fell 27% to 59 cents and have lost about half their value in the past four days. Analysts have said trading in the shares has not reflected a creditor deal that was approved in January. "We attribute the movements of the last few months to mere speculation, since it was known that the value of the shares would be practically zero," said Brian Rodriguez, a stock market analyst at Monex financial group. Through the tender offer, which took place between Feb. 15 and March 14, investment vehicle Alinfra purchased 133.2m shares of the airline at a price of one cent each.A subsequent share exchange will dilute the company's current capital stock to less than 0.01% of its capital after the restructure. Aeromexico declared bankruptcy in June 2020 amid a slump in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its shares were trading at around 15 pesos each in January 2020.<br/>

SunExpress, a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, will ramp up capacity to record levels this summer as European demand for flights to Turkey rebounds, its CEO said. Focused on Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean resorts, the carrier expects 9.1m passengers this year, up more than 50% from 2021, CE Max Kownatzki said. Antalya-based SunExpress offers flights mainly between Turkey and European countries and carried 6m passengers last year, with a 75% load factor. Kownatzki said this year would approach the pre-pandemic passenger numbers of 2019, and that the company would add 25 new routes and 16,250 flights. “The outlook despite COVID and despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine is very positive,” he said. “The tourist demand continues to be strong as the summer season approaches. In 2022, we aim to increase our capacity beyond 2019 pre-pandemic levels to coastal cities” including Antalya, Izmir, Dalaman and Bodrum,” Kownatzki said. Turkey, facing soaring inflation and currency depreciation, is aiming for $34.5b in tourism revenue this year. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could have an impact on tourism as Russians and Ukrainians are the country’s first and third biggest respective sources of visitors, based on Turkey’s tourism ministry data.<br/>

Clogged ports and labour shortages will help drive air freight in the first half of this year with demand outstripping supply, Taiwan’s China Airlines Ltd said on Tuesday as it reported record freight revenues in Q4. China Airlines, Taiwan’s largest carrier, is also the world’s fifth largest air freight operator, operating 18 Boeing 747 and three 777 freighters, as well as carrying cargo in the bellies of passenger services. Tech powerhouse Taiwan is a major manufacturer of semiconductors, used in everything from smartphones to aircraft, a shortage of which has reverberated around global supply chains. The island’s exports rose 29.4% in 2021 to a record high. The airline, which in January ordered four more 777 freighters, said that freight revenues in the last three months of last year hit T$43.2b ($1.51b), up 67% year-on-year and reaching a record for the quarter. “In the first half of the year, disturbance factors such as sea port congestion and lack of labour will still exist, and the demand for sea-to-air cargo will remain strong. It is expected that overall cabin space will still be in short supply,” it added. The airline will target the chip and consumer electronic sectors in particular and continue to promote “customised charter flights”, focusing on urgent and high-priced cargo charters, it said. The airline will add another two 777 freighters this year, while the four it ordered in January will start arriving from 2023 with deliveries complete by the end of 2024, “adding impetus to China Airlines’ cargo capacity”.<br/>