Hong Kong startup Greater Bay Airlines has scaled back its initial growth ambitions due to tight pandemic-related quarantine restrictions and has yet to set a date for its first commercial flights, its chief executive said on Friday. The carrier, which intends to compete against the financial centre's dominant airline, Cathay Pacific, was granted a licence last month to operate regular flights. The second of three Boeing 737-800s leased from China's ICBC Leasing arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday. However, CE Algernon Yau said requirements for two weeks of hotel quarantine on arrival to the city would need to relax before Greater Bay would commit to a launch date and its first routes. "I think we would need around three months in advance," he said of the notice needed to gain traffic rights and airport slots. The airline said in October it hoped to have seven jets in operation by the end of 2022, but Yau said growth plans had been scaled back due to setbacks in border openings as COVID-19 cases rose in its home city. "I think we will operate three aircraft this year," he said. "And maybe we will reach the level in the second half of 2023 where we are adding two more aircraft." The carrier is developing a longer-term growth plan that could involve a fleet of up to 30 Boeing 737 MAX 10 or Airbus A321neo planes flying to destinations in mainland China and around Asia over the next five years, Yau said.<br/>
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The Pakistan airspace is set to get crowded as Fly Jinnah, a proposed low-cost carrier, prepares to take wing this year. The airline is a joint venture between Air Arabia Group and Lakson Group, one of Pakistan’s leading and most diversified business conglomerates. “Fly Jinnah will benefit from the experience of Air Arabia, which is its minority stakeholder,” an aviation expert from Pakistan said. “It will be essentially a low-cost airline, just like its partner.” “The airline will begin operating domestically with three leased A320 aircraft and will gradually expand to international routes after a year of successful domestic operations following the addition of aircraft,” the insider said. Having received a regular public transport license for the operation of passenger and cargo services in July 2021 from the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, the start-up airline aims to secure its air operator’s certificate in June, after which it will soon commence domestic services. The airline has already commenced recruitment drives for cabin crew in Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore.<br/>
Malaysia long-haul, low-cost carrier AirAsia X has completed all formalities of its debt restructuring, paving the way for a planned fundraising. Through the lodgement of the Sanction Order in Malaysia, the effects of the company’s debt restructuring – which was approved last year – can now be reflected in the company’s financial statements, said the carrier on 16 March. “The lodgement of the Sanction Order means that the financial effects can be recognised in the financial statements of the Company and, as a result, AAX will be able to reverse RM33b ($7.8b) of liabilities and provisions for liabilities which have been waived under the scheme,” it says. AirAsia X has plans to raise MYR166m via a rights issue. “This is another significant step in rebuilding AAX, post pandemic,” says CE Benyamin Ismail. “We are returning to the skies in a robust position where we can once again offer the best value fares and customer service excellence which our customers deserve. Cargo has been a strong lifeline for AAX and our recovery is already underway as a combination carrier with equal emphasis on cargo and passenger revenues.” He adds that the carrier will relaunch services to more international destinations in the coming months. Travel restrictions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic all but shut down AirAsia X, which only serves international destinations, for most of 2020 and 2021. In February, Ismail said that the airline would have 15 Airbus A330-300s in service by the end of 2022 as it reactivates its fleet. <br/>