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United Airlines says demand for trans-Atlantic travel is heating up, despite higher fuel prices and the Ukraine war. The airline plans to fly 25% more across the Atlantic this peak spring and summer travel season compared with 2019, including new destinations it unveiled last fall such as Bergen, Norway; Amman, Jordan; and Portugal’s Azores. United is adding new routes and frequencies, including service to London, Zurich, Munich, Milan and Nice, France. The stronger demand “was something that we anticipated and it’s something we’re seeing results of,” Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice president of international network and alliances, said on a call with reporters Monday. Domestic US roundtrip fares currently average $357, up 23% from three years ago while international fares from the US are 1% below 2019 levels at $848, according to travel and fare-tracking company Hopper. United is ramping up its schedule as the airline faces several challenges: the longer-than-expected process to resume flying its 52 Pratt & Whitney-powered Boeing 777s after an engine failure last year, delivery delays of new Boeing Dreamliners, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a surge in costs. “We have not seen any softness in terms of demand,” Quayle said of the carrier’s easternmost European destinations, such as Germany or Croatia. But, he added, there might be some impact on demand for connections to cities farther east in countries like Poland and Romania that are served by United’s partner Lufthansa. Quayle also said United is logging “robust” demand for more expensive products like its Polaris business class and its premium economy class for trans-Atlantic flights. <br/>

Air Canada more than tripled its revenues last quarter as demand for travel revved up, though a net loss of nearly $1b signalled the pandemic recovery is far from complete. After the Omicron variant of COVID-19 slowed bookings in January, the airline's sales spiked in March as travel restrictions eased, pushing bookings to 90% of 2019 levels. “We are very positive on the rest of the year and continued growth over the next several years,” CEO Michael Rousseau told analysts on a conference call Tuesday. The country's largest airline maintained full-year forecasts that capacity will average out at roughly three-quarters of what it was in 2019. However, Air Canada's capacity continues to lag its US counterparts and business travel remains at half the volume it hit three years ago, said CCO Lucie Guillemette. “International might take a little bit longer,” she said, referring to overseas business bookings, even as domestic and leisure travel ramp up. Air Canada hopes to take advantage of a renewed appetite for corporate travel in the United States as the carrier shores up its US flight schedule, she added.<br/>

Poland could drastically cut back on flights to and from Warsaw from May 1 if a dispute with air traffic controllers over pay and conditions is not resolved, according to legislation published before negotiations were set to resume on Tuesday. Almost 90% of air traffic controllers in Warsaw chose to quit rather than accept new working regulations, which they say threaten safety. Some have already left and the notice period for the remaining 136 ends on April 30. This will leave Warsaw's two main airports with only 26 controllers between them and likely lead to mass cancellations of flights to and from Warsaw, but authorities said flights passing through its airspace should not be cancelled. "Half of these flights will be made in our airspace, half of these flights... will be redirected to neighboring countries, but flights over Poland will not be cancelled," Civil Aviation Authority head Piotr Samson told journalists. The government announced late on Monday in the official gazette that from May 1, the Chopin and Modlin international airports would only be operational from 0930 to 1700 local time due to a lack of air traffic controllers. The legislation gave a list of flight destinations that would be prioritised. Airlines affected would include LOT Polish Airlines, Wizz Air and Lufthansa, which all operate out of Chopin airport, and Ryanair, which flies out of Modlin. Ryanair said on Tuesday it had complained to the European Commission about the legislation because it believes the list of prioritised destinations unfairly favours LOT.<br/>

Air New Zealand will centralise operations in Auckland and move its workforce in the city to a refurbished airport campus, the airline said on Wednesday, adding that the decision will help it cut costs by a fifth over 15 years. The move, expected to occur in 2024, comes as New Zealand's flag carrier looks to reduce property costs while aiming for an uptick in business after two years of hard-line international border restrictions at home. "We have more space than we need in the Auckland central business district (CBD) and are already paying for a precinct at the airport that has more than enough space to meet even our most ambitious growth projections," said CEO Greg Foran. Foran added that the decision was taken due to rising building costs and as the company's CBD leases were coming to an end. Air New Zealand also said it would begin building a new aircraft hangar at Auckland airport this year as it expects a rebound in demand for its long-haul flights amid easing COVID-19 curbs.<br/>