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Air Canada sees higher-margin business travel coming "quite close" to pre-pandemic levels by as early as September, in the latest encouraging sign for the once hard-hit sector, a top executive told Reuters. Globally, business travel has lagged leisure in bouncing back from a COVID-19-induced slump, but airlines say it is now rebounding in North America as offices reopen and COVID restrictions ease. Corporate travel is important for airlines because of demand from frequent flyers and appetite for higher-margin premium fares. Air Canada said earlier this year it expects business travel to reach 40% below 2019 levels by June, and return to 75% to 80% of pre-pandemic levels by 2023. Canada's largest carrier is seeing a steady recovery in business travel demand although the rebound in the country's overall air traffic has lagged that of the United States. "We’re actually very encouraged," Air Canada CCO Lucie Guillemette said Tuesday. "We’re certainly not close to 2019 levels yet, but we are thinking that, based on what we’re seeing, most probably by the time we hit Labor Day, or get into 2023 it should be quite close." Guillemette also said transborder business travel could especially benefit if the United States were to end COVID testing requirements for arrivals, since those passengers often take shorter trips. US airlines, along with business and travel groups, have recently pressed the Biden administration to lift a rule requiring nearly all international air passengers with some exceptions to test negative for COVID-19 before entering the country. "We also believe that some of these restrictions are maybe a little bit more restrictive or difficult for business travelers, a little more so than for leisure travelers," Guillemette said. "If we look at how the demand recovery patterns behaved as restrictions were lifted, it stands to reason that when this requirement is removed we should see an upside without a doubt.”<br/>

Rome’s airport operator said Deutsche Lufthansa AG would make an ideal partner for Italian flag carrier ITA Airways, with the German group’s multi-base strategy providing a boost to the city’s main Fiumicino hub. ITA needs to team up with a larger carrier to boost revenue, while Fiumicino would benefit from being Lufthansa’s new interchange for southern Europe, Aeroporti di Roma SpA Chief Executive Officer Marco Troncone said. “We are very positive about the Lufthansa business model,” Troncone said in an interview. “The company has extensive experience in dealing with post-crisis carriers and managing multiple hubs.” He added that ITA will remain a key partner with which Aeroporti di Roma will continue to profitably work regardless of the outcome of the sale process. Italy wants binding bids for ITA by Monday as it seeks an equity backer for the successor to failed Alitalia. Lufthansa and container line Mediterranean Shipping Co. form one of three groups that had expressed an interest earlier this month. Also in the running is a consortium of Delta Air Lines, Air France-KLM and US fund Certares, plus Wizz Air Holdings Plc investor Indigo Partners.<br/>

A nascent recovery in air travel demand enabled Singapore Airlines to cut its net loss for the second half by 85% and bring down its full-year net loss by 75%. The company posted a $125m net loss for the October 2021-March 2022 second half. This is significantly down from the $837m of red ink during the first six months of the current financial year, which began on April 1, 2021. The improvement in the bottomline came on the back of a 69.4% surge in topline revenue to $4.79b during the October 2021-March 2022 second half, compared with $2.83b in the previous six months. But the airline posted an operating profit of $10m during the April-September 2021 period. All this translated into a full-year net loss of $962m, compared with a $4.27b loss during the previous financial year ending March 31, 2021. Revenue for the year to Mar 31, 2022, doubled to $7.62b, from $3.82b a year earlier. But operating losses were trimmed to $610m, from $2.51b during the previous Covid-stricken year. SIA's balance sheet was relatively stable, with total equity at $22.4b, including $4.67b in general reserves. Total cash and bank balances stood at $13.76b, while total debt was $15.69b. The forward numbers look good thanks to a pick up in air travel momentum. Changi Airport's passenger numbers are now at 50% of pre-pandemic levels and could go higher as the traditional June travel period approaches.<br/>

Singapore Airlines does not expect its growth plans to take a major hit because Boeing pushed back the date for delivery of its first 777X planes, the carrier's CE said Thursday. Last month, Boeing confirmed a delay to 2025 in handing customers the first 777X jet from a prior target of late in 2023, but said it retained confidence in the programme. Before the delays, SIA had expected to receive by the end of 2023 the first of the 31 777X planes it has on order, CE Goh Choon Phong told analysts and media. "At the moment I don't think that our growth plan will be severely hampered," he said. "We do have some flexibility in terms of making up for any potential loss of capacity," he said, referring to the airline's fleet plan. The comments came after the carrier posted on Wednesday a narrower annual loss of S$962m ($693.63m) for the 12 months ended March 31, including second-half operating profit of S$10m as border curbs eased and passenger numbers rose. SIA said passenger capacity would average about 61% of pre-pandemic levels in Q1 and 67% in Q2 of the current financial year.<br/>

Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways, and Thai AirAsia parent Asia Aviation all posted operating losses in the first quarter, even though Covid-19 travel restrictions have started to fall away. In their results for the three months to 31 March, all three carriers mentioned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a significant negative factor, particularly because Russia supplies a large number of leisure tourists. The disappearance of Chinese tourists amid Beijing’s tough stance against coronavirus infections remains a major overhang. China aside, the carriers also felt that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 continued to weigh on travel demand in the first quarter. Thai Airways International was able to sharply reduce its operating loss for the three months ended 31 March to Bt3.2b ($92.5m), compared with an operating loss of Bt7b a year earlier. Total operating revenues tripled to Bt11 billion, with “passenger and excess baggage” revenue rocketing nearly five-fold to Bt4.5. The carrier’s net position also improved with net losses narrowing to Bt3.2b from Bt12b in Q1 2021. ASKs for the quarter nearly tripled, while RPKs rose nearly six-fold. Load factors, however, remained weak, rising 15.2 percentage points to just 32.5%.<br/>