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Southwest Thursday reported a net loss of $278m in the first three months of the year but echoed the optimism of other carriers about the months ahead, saying it has already expanded its work force by 3,300 employees, or about 6%, this year. “While the impact from the Omicron variant in January and February disrupted our anticipated profit recovery in first quarter 2022, we returned to strong profitability in March 2022 on surging travel demand,” Southwest’s CE Bob Jordan said. Despite high fuel prices and suppressed demand for corporate travel, Jordan said, the airline expects to be “solidly profitable” for the rest of the year. But the company may find it difficult to return to and exceed 2019 staffing levels. More than 15 percent of Southwest employees have joined the airline since autumn, Jordan said on a call with investors and analysts, noting that many are still learning and are not yet as productive as they could be. The airline now plans to add 10,000 employees this year, an increase from a January projection of 8,000. Bringing on and training new pilots is especially crucial, Jordan said. “Now when you get to ‘Where are you most constrained?,’ definitely it’s pilots,” he said. “And to some extent it’s our flight instructors to train our pilots.” In February, Southwest finished retraining all of its pilots who took long-term leave during the pandemic, Jordan said. Now, it is trying to replace the hundreds who took buyouts, a process that is between half and two-thirds complete, he said.<br/>

Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes Thursday reported higher-than-expected first quarter net income as currency gains helped offset higher fuel prices, driving its shares higher. The company said operating results were the best since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with quarterly sales coming in above the levels seen in Q1 2019, prior to the health crisis. Shares of Gol were up 2.6% at 15.08 reais in midafternoon, outperforming Brazil’s Bovespa stock index, which was up 0.4%. Gol posted quarterly net profit of 2.6b reais ($523.8m), compared with a 394.8m-real consensus from analysts polled by Refinitiv, reversing the multibillion-real losses of both a year ago and the previous quarter. The bottom line was boosted mainly by foreign exchange gains, Gol said, as Brazil’s real strengthened sharply against the US dollar in the period. The company disclosed preliminary traffic data for the first quarter earlier this month, noting its load factor rose by about 1 percentage point from last year. Available seat kilometers (ASK) grew roughly 44%.<br/>

The federal transport minister says 37 passengers on a late-December party flight from Montreal to Mexico have been fined a total of $59,500. Omar Alghabra's office says 42 tickets were issued, including 18 for non-compliance with vaccination requirements and 24 for violations of masking rules. Videos of the charter flight from Montreal to Cancun were shared on social media and show unmasked passengers singing and dancing in the aisles and on seats, some clutching liquor, snapping selfies and vaping. The minister's office says a Transport Canada investigation into the flight is ongoing and further sanctions could be issued. Sunwing Airlines cancelled the group's return flight after the videos began circulating. Air Canada and Air Transat also refused to book the flight's 154 passengers on return trips to Canada.<br/>

Aeroflot Group’s board is to hold a meeting at which the directors will discuss increasing the authorised share capital of the company. The board meeting is set to take place on 29 April, the airline has disclosed. Its agenda includes amending articles of association for the company and determining the placement price of additional ordinary shares. No details of the share plan have been outlined. Aeroflot Group also plans to convene and extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, on a date yet to be fixed. The company’s capital comprises some 2.44b ordinary shares, with the Russian government holding around 57%. Another 41% are free-floated.<br/>

Soaring fuel costs could spark a rise in air fares and threaten to close some airlines, one European aviation chief warned on Thursday. Eamon Brennan, director general of air traffic control body Eurocontrol, noted that oil had spiked to $152 a barrel as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “I would say with the price of fuel we will probably see fares starting to rise in the longer term, with possible fuel surcharges later this year,” he said. Brennan pointed out that many airlines were not viable with oil at $100 a barrel. He added that it remained to be seen how these carriers would cope with higher oil prices, particularly those that had not hedged their fuel needs. Ryanair is 80% hedged for this year, while Aer Lingus’s parent, International Airlines Group, recently confirmed that it had hedged 70% of its needs. However, Brennan said that air travel continued to recover from Covid lockdowns around Europe, despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Traffic is at 82% of the levels it hit in 2019, the year before the pandemic struck. “The biggest strain on the system is at airports,” Brennan noted, saying that many were struggling with security, baggage handling and other services as passengers returned in droves.<br/>

EasyJet terminated rental contracts on six Airbus jets owned by a Russian state leasing company in a rare example of sanctions depriving a European carrier of aircraft. EasyJet canceled the leases on the A319 narrow-bodies -- each over 11 years old -- owned by a unit of state-controlled GTLK shortly after the UK and European Union acted to punish Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine in late February, according to a person familiar with the matter. The carrier acted due to the Russian link even though it wasn’t clear at the time whether rapidly evolving rules would allow it to operate or maintain the aircraft, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing confidential matters. Aviation has been a flash point in the global faceoff between Moscow and nations led by the US, UK and European Union since the Feb. 24 invasion. While a range of sanctions targeting the industry were meant to sever Russia’s links with the outside world, European entities have also been caught up in the measures. EasyJet is one of a handful of non-Russian carriers that rented planes from Russian-owned lessors. The six jets have been in storage since March 2020, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium, when the coronavirus pandemic caused a sudden drop in demand for air travel.<br/>

EasyJet’s pilots have accused the airline of “corporate bullying” in its handling of staff absences as it struggles to deal with a wave of disruption and cancellations. The pilots union Balpa wrote to the easyJet board on Tuesday to complain about a “counterproductive” push to deal with the number of staff calling in sick, which it said had “completely decimated any residual goodwill among your workforce in one fell swoop”. EasyJet has been hit by an unprecedented wave of staff sickness and been forced to cancel hundreds of flights in recent weeks. The disruption has come as the wider airline industry has struggled to increase operations after two years of limited flying following a surge of spring and summer bookings. EasyJet’s management highlighted the problem from Covid-19-related absences during an earnings call this month, as it disclosed staff absences have hit 20% in some bases. But the union anger follows a specific email sent to pilots and crew last week that warned the current level of staff absence “is not sustainable going forward”. The email admitted the focus on sickness “may be a tough read”, and highlighted the company policies towards taking “formal action” against staff over absence rates. “The triggers for formal action are guidelines and we may, if deemed necessary, skip a stage where the absence continues to be poor,” according to a copy of the email. The message said workers should not come to work if they are sick, but bemoaned a “high increase” in staff turning up to work and declaring themselves unfit at the last minute, or not properly rested.<br/>

Bookings at Ryanair’s main DAC airline are around 10% below 2019 levels due to the lingering effects of the pandemic but should soon be back to normal, CE Eddie Wilson told an event in Madrid on Thursday. “The booking curve was interrupted by Omicron (COVID-19 variant), we are 10% behind 2019 but we will be back to normal a little bit later,” he said.<br/>

AirAsia Aviation Group is seeing robust traffic growth in the quarter to 31 March, as it believes travel revival is “well underway” amid easing of travel restrictions in the region. The aviation entity of Capital A reports a significant increase - nearly four-fold - in passenger numbers to 3.7m passengers across airline units in Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. The growth was led by Malaysia-based AirAsia Malaysia, which saw a five-fold year-on-year jump in passenger numbers to 2.8m. Capacity and traffic saw a similar increase, as the carrier resumed a significant number of domestic flights and ramped up capacity during the festive periods. “These very promising achievements were driven by added frequencies of domestic flights in line with increased demand and were also attributed to the promotional campaigns that took place in 1Q2022,” says the group. As for AirAsia Philippines, it saw passenger numbers grow three-fold to around 561,000. Capacity and traffic also increased about three times year on year, helped by “huge summer demand” following Manila’s move to further ease pandemic restrictions. Indonesia AirAsia, meanwhile, carried 380,000 passengers during the quarter, a modest 22% increase year on year. Capacity shrank 8%, while traffic grew about 22%, leading to a 20-point jump in load factor. <br/>

Pertamina, the Indonesian state oil and gas company, on Thursday launched commercial flights under the brand Pelita Air, with the government pledging affordable domestic service as it aims to steer clear of the mismanagement and debt that has plagued flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. Pelita Air's first commercial flight took off from Jakarta and landed on the resort island of Bali. The airline will also cover the Jakarta-Yogyakarta route. The province, in the heart of Java Island, is another popular tourist destination. The airline is currently operating two Airbus A320s for its commercial flights but is planning to increase the fleet to six aircraft by the end of the year and to 20 by the end of 2023. Established in 1970, Pelita Air has long offered chartered flights, mainly to support Pertamina's oil and gas operations across the archipelago. It is led by President Director Dendy Kurniawan, who left the same position at AirAsia Indonesia earlier this month. State Enterprise Minister Erick Thohir said Pelita Air will focus exclusively on domestic flights, citing the nation's "enormous potential" and pre-COVID data showing that 72% of flights serving Indonesia covered domestic routes. "Indonesia is an archipelagic nation with a population of 273 million," Thohir said during a preflight ceremony. "It's a huge market." He added that by focusing on domestic routes, "Pelita can fly high" and eventually join the ranks of global airlines.<br/>

Bamboo Airways on Thursday launched the first direct flight between Melbourne and Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi. The 787-9, VN-A818, departed the Victorian capital at 10:17am as flight QH83 and is scheduled to land at 4:45pm local time. The airline will initially operate one flight a week between the two destinations, in addition to its service between Melbourne and Vietnam’s largest city Ho Chi Minh. Melbourne Airport general manager Jim Parashos said, “For the large Vietnamese community here in Australia, it will also provide an essential connection to family and friends back home, as well as enable international students from Vietnam to come down under to study at our world-class higher learning institutions.”<br/>