unaligned

Breeze Airways plans to add eight flights, including service to California, from Westchester County Airport in New York, a bet that the start-up can win over suburbanites seeking to avoid a trip to the New York City area’s large hubs. The airline, launched by JetBlue Airways founder David Neeleman, is offering nonstop routes from Westchester to Los Angeles; San Francisco; Charleston, South Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; and Norfolk, Virginia. It will also offer a flight with one stop to New Orleans. The announcement comes a month after Breeze Airways said it would nearly double its network this year. The Westchester flights are part of a strategy from upstarts like Breeze and Avelo Airlines to capitalize on demand from travelers in smaller cities. “They want to go nonstop, and they want to do it more efficiently,” Breeze CEO Neeleman said. Neeleman said the strategy is focused on leisure travelers, noting that many business travelers prioritize airlines that offer multiple frequencies as well as frequent flyer status. Breeze Airways plans to use its Airbus A220-300s on the cross-country routes, which include 36 first-class seats.<br/>

Members of Canada’s airline industry are asking the federal government to reject Flair Airlines’ request for a temporary exemption of the Canadian ownership requirement. “If granted, this unprecedented request would allow Flair to continue operating outside the bounds of existing Canadian law, setting a troubling precedent while also threatening consumer confidence in the sector, at a time when the travel industry is working hard to provide a strong and sustainable future for air travel for Canadians,” the National Airlines Council of Canada and the Air Transport Association of Canada said in a joint statement. Together the two groups represent Canada’s major airlines — Air Canada, WestJet Airlines, Transat — smaller and freight carriers and aviation industry suppliers. Flair is facing an investigation by the Canadian Transport Agency over whether it meets the requirements for Canadian ownership. Under the Act, at least 51% of a company’s voting interests must be Canadian, and no more than 25% of voting interests may be held by a single non-Canadian company or person. At issue is Miami-based 777 Partners, which has a 25% stake in Flair, leases the airline its planes and has members on its board. The Edmonton-based Flair, which has until May 3 to answer the agency’s preliminary findings or potentially have its licence suspended, has asked for an 18-month exemption to address the issue.<br/>

Icelandic startup Play’s CEO Birgir Jónsson is unconcerned about the potential fallout from the war in Ukraine or Covid on the realization of the airline’s transatlantic ambitions. All three of its initial US destinations — Baltimore-Washington, Boston, and New York Stewart — are meeting expectations, and inflation is not expected to deter American travelers from their long-awaited European holidays. “If you’re going on holiday, you’re not going to abort your summer vacation if you have to pay $30 more for the airfare, especially if you’re going transatlantic,” Jónsson said. “In actual fact, the way consumers behave, it’s the price of a beer.” The beer in his analogy is equivalent to added fuel expenses that Play estimates it needs to recoup since oil prices spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. And even then, Jónsson said, the airline’s estimates were made in March when Brent crude prices were over $120 per barrel. Brent now hovers just over $100 per barrel. Play is one of a new crop of long-haul, low-cost startups with their eyes on the transatlantic. Norse Atlantic Airways plans to begin flights between its Oslo base and three US destinations by the end of June with former Norwegian Air Boeing 787s. Both Play and Norse follow in the footsteps of failed predecessors. Play embraces its likeness with defunct Wow Air, while Norse distances itself from Norwegian Air’s former long-haul operation, which it increasingly mimics.<br/>

Emirates' boss says the airline will keep flying to Russia unless its owner, the Dubai government, tells it not to. "If we are told to stop we will stop, unless we are told otherwise, we will continue," Sir Tim Clarke said. Most major international airlines pulled out of Russia amid sweeping sanctions imposed by Western countries since the war began in Ukraine. But Emirates is one of the few carriers that is still operating flights to Moscow and St Petersburg. When asked if the airline would reconsider its position, Emirates president Sir Tim said that "it was not his call" but a decision that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government would take. As well as carrying passengers, the airline also transports cargo including humanitarian goods, food and medical supplies, which are not on the sanctions list.<br/>

Ryanair has signed a deal under which it will use fuel featuring a 40% sustainable blend for some Amsterdam Schiphol-origin flights. The arrangement announced on 20 April is part of a tie-up with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supplier Neste, which already provides SAF to KLM at the Dutch airport. The 40% sustainable proportion of the fuel is derived from used cooking oil, Ryanair says. The agreement was implemented on 1 April, it adds, with around a third of its flights from Schiphol receiving the blended fuel. Cirium schedules data shows Ryanair currently flies to two destinations from the Amsterdam hub: Dublin and Malaga. Together, they will account for 146 departures of Ryanair jets from the airport in May this year, data shows, out of nearly 88,000 flights across airline’s network. The small size of the SAF deal is not unusual in industry terms, however, and comes amid a clamour among airlines for the ramping-up of industrial-scale production in the coming years. For a multi-base carrier such as Ryanair, SAF supply also needs to be secured at a host of airports, as opposed to the single-airport focus of many network carriers.<br/>

African carrier RwandAir has disclosed that one of its aircraft has been involved in a runway excursion at Uganda’s Entebbe airport. The Bombardier CRJ900 was operating flight WB464 from Kigali via Nairobi on 20 April. RwandAir says the regional jet suffered the excursion, “veering off the runway upon landing” as it arrived in “adverse weather” at about 05:30. “All customers and crew were evacuated safely and no injuries were reported,” the carrier adds. The aircraft involved (9XR-WI) was delivered new to the carrier in 2012. RwandAir says the situation is “under control” and that it is in contact with “all affected passengers”. “The aircraft is currently being recovered so Entebbe’s runway can return to use,” it adds. RwandAir insists safety is “always our highest priority”. “Our flight crews are highly trained for all eventualities including flying in adverse weather conditions,” the carrier states.<br/>

A new budget carrier meant to be the first international customer for China’s homegrown passenger jet is going with Airbus SE for its first plane, the carrier’s website shows. Indonesian low-cost carrier PT TransNusa Aviation Mandiri may eventually have as many as six Airbus jets in its fleet, with a second due to arrive next month, a person familiar with the matter said, declining to be identified because the information is private. China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Ltd. -- a shareholder of TransNusa -- said in January last year that it would provide the Indonesian carrier with 30 of state-backed planemaker Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China’s ARJ21 single-aisle jets, making the Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara-based airline the first outside China to fly the company’s planes. TransNusa Vice Chairman Leo Budiman said in an interview last year that the airline was hoping to start receiving deliveries of ARJ21 jets as early as 2022. Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China is more commonly known as Comac. That TransNusa has gone with Airbus for its first jet and not Comac is another setback for the Chinese jet manufacturer with ambitions to take on the duopoly enjoyed by Airbus and Boeing Co. Although Comac is an integral part of the country’s “Made in China 2025” program to reduce its reliance on critical technology imports -- everything from semiconductors to satellites -- by 2025, its progress has been patchy.<br/>